Summer Rose Court: Midnight Fall
by spooky-lilith
Summary: It is the year 1213. The rump State of Vale, having relocated towards the southern colonial fortress of Beacon for survival, finds and crowns queen, the lost heir to The Throne of Rose, thought to be lost to a Grimm outbreak fourteen years prior. The reign of Ruby Rose, Reclaimer of Vale, has begun.


**This fic is based off of the fanmade visual novel, Summer Rose Court, which takes place in a medieval RWBY au. It's ftp and download, and is an outright work of love. While this fic is based off of Summer Rose Court, it messes with the plot and characters quite a bit. You do not need to read it in order to enjoy this fic (hopefully).**

**For Example: Yang is no longer Ruby's half-sister from the nomad tribes, as it is in the VN. (She's still Ruby's half-sister, but I've changed up her backstory quite a lot) She doesn't even come from the Nomad Tribes anymore, and as a result, is not with Ruby during her first few weeks as Queen.**

**I do hope you all enjoy this fic. If reception is warm, then I have plans to continue this fic for as long as I can. Influences (And my Influences, I mean Fandoms that I outright stole concepts from) include Fire Emblem, Fate, Forgotten Realms.**

**Character sexualities and gender identities down in the notes below. Content Warnings down in the notes below.**

* * *

_5/4, Beacon Castle Sublevels _

_Crimson Rose_

"I ask of you, are you my master?"

The girl demanding this question stands above her. Her gentle features softly lit by dim wick and faltering lantern. Her silver white hair glowing against the dark. Her jet black eyes, pierced with blue pupils, wanting. Curious.

Ruby Rose was about to die.

Well, had been, thanks to her white clad savior in front of her.

She hadn't even been Queen of Vale for two weeks before nearly meeting her end. Gods help her for her second brush with death. Maybe she should have listened to Miss Goodwitch's advice? When you fall through a trap door while exploring your own dilapidated castle, straight down into the unused catacombs likely infested with Grimm, perhaps it was suitable advice of hers to stay put until Miss Goodwitch came down.

But then Miss Goodwitch had gotten lost. The trap door redirected her to another part of the catacombs, and Ruby was then on her own. And then she got bored.

So here was Ruby now, her little involuntary expedition into the catacombs of Beacon Castle interrupted by the aforementioned Grimm. She'd managed to hightail it out of there, but didn't know exactly where to run, being lost in a near labyrinth and terrified out of her freshly crowned mind. Then she'd managed to crash into she figured was obviously a magus's chamber, meant for summonings and conjurings, given the summoning circle etched out on the stone surface of the floor.

And now, as fate would have it, her choice in direction had saved her life, in the form of a beautiful knight. Clad in noble white garb over her light steel armor, armed with a rapier that struck a precarious balance between dainty and threatening. With long, flowing white hair done up in a side ponytail. And the most striking ice black eyes.

It also appeared that the freshly crowned Queen of Vale was a raging Sapphic.

'_Not the time for that, idiot!' _Her thoughts were growing slower and slower, a slight pain at the temple of her forehead.

The knight before her clears her throat. "I ask of you again. Are you my master?"

All rationality left Queen Ruby Rose's head when she began racking her brain for any introduction that wouldn't make her sound like a total idiot.

'_Good day to you Miss Knight! You're incredibly pretty, and I'm the regent of Lesbos!' _No, no, most definitely not that.

"Are you just going to gawk at me this entire time, or are you going to explain to me what's going on!? Why exactly did you summon me, and why exactly are we down here?" The knight demands.

Oh boy. And she'd already pissed her off. "G-grimm." She manages to coax out of her throat. The second the word leaves her tongue, it's as though sand is pouring from her mouth, as if the world's stickiest honey had coated her teeth full.

"I am…" Ruby tries mustering up whatever formalities she can come up with, "Queen Ruby Rose, of Vale. We are… deep underneath my castle, there's a whole lotta Grimm down here, and my head really freaking hurts."

Then she lets herself go, her back falling against the hard ground as her head seethes in pain.

It felt as if someone were piercing her skin with a hot iron needle, and maneuvering it gently so as to bury the entire stick underneath a thin layer of flesh. As if her joints were made out of torture wheels coated with a most repulsive smelling honey meant to catch insects. As if her eyes were filled, no, inflated with wasps and honeybees struggling to escape through the sclera of her eyes.

The last thing she remembers is the knight's arms cradling her, and how cold she was.

Yet Remnant had been frozen cold since Salem invaded. She was used to the cold, bitter and lonely as it was.

* * *

_5/6, Beacon Castle Hospital _

_Crimson Rose_

_Punn...punn...punn… _It's as though there's an angry bird inside her head, slamming against the innards of her skull. Her dreams of her eyes screaming to be put out of their misery come to reality, as a faint, yet terribly cruel candlelight greets her awakening. Mildly better in reality than in her dreams, nevermind how she came to that conclusion. Her throat is terribly sore, which is new, and she feels warm… warm all over.

And wet. And uncomfortably sweaty. Lying on her back against, thankfully, a mattress, memories of a cold, hard floor making her spine wince in discomfort.

The intoxicating scent of sage and enchanted incense wafts throughout wherever she is, and it's almost pleasant for a moment. Until the heaviness of the smell smashes into her and she wants nothing more than to throw up. Then again, given how she is right now, there were likely other reasons for her nausea.

"Miss Rose." She's barely in the mood to form a coherent thought right now, but instantly recognizes the voice as Miss Goodwitch, her royal tutor. That she had classes with. From sunrise to sunset. Four days of the week. "I take it, that you're feeling better?"

Ruby groans. Loud.

"I'll take that as a yes." Ruby hears the grinding of what must be some alchemical or medical mixture. Mortar and Pestle. More incense is lit. Gods if she lives through this, she's never lighting another set of incense again.

"Why does everything hurt." Ruby croaks out, barely.

"Your magic circuits are exhausted. You're supporting a familiar right now, and you just don't have the magic circuits, or the mana to support her."

"A famili-oh."

So she'd managed to flub her first impression, and now the knight knew she'd drawn the short stick when it came to summoners. Glorious.

"I've had you ingest multiple solutions of Salts to better support your newfound partner. But ingesting too much Salts in a short period of time will overload your magic circuits. Your familiar will be able to operate akin to a normal human being as long as you follow my prescription to the order. Understood?"

"Yes m'am." Ruby croaks. "Do you have anything to make the pain go away? Please?"

She can feel Miss Goodwitch rolling her eyes. "Trust me Miss Rose, you would be in far more pain if it weren't for me. Just leave it at that, and remember your medicine, no more than what I say is the dose. Understood?"

"Ugh. Got it." Ruby gently teases her eyes all the way open; it's a painful motion, but once she'd gotten over it, the pain became minor, and bearable almost. "You know, I thought you'd be angrier at me."

A fist meets what must be Miss Goodwitch's worktable; a medicinal plate or four crashes onto the stone floor, and maybe Ruby shouldn't have poked the bear.

"I _am _, angry. Very angry, young lady. You recklessly endangered yourself by not staying put when you fell through that trap door, like I told you too! You're very, very lucky that I'm more mad at myself, for not being able to anticipate such a trap, and for being utterly useless in the situation. If it hadn't been for your familiar-"

"Miss Goodwitch…" Ruby drunkenly grins, heart warmed and sweet, "It was my fault. I was the one that chose to go spelunking, like you said."

The look Miss Goodwitch gives her tells Ruby that she most certainly was not off the hook, but she acquesces her with a smile nonetheless. "In that case, I'm glad that you agree with me. So this means you won't be displeased with extended hours for the next few days to make up for lost time?"

Ruby groans again.

"Very good Miss Rose. Exactly two days have passed since your familiar brought you up through the castle catacombs. I'm also letting you know that in light of recent events, I'm shifting the focus of your curriculum torwards familiars and the concept of mana, alongside several hands-on lessons regarding your magic circuits. You will have your assigned pages after today."

Ruby staggers on a stray thought. Her knight… carried her up? Even with the mana situation at hand? "Two bloody days? Buggery."

"Your free time in the following month will be very limited. I expect great things from you, Young Rose."

"Fantastic." Ruby droles, earning herself a flick on the nose.

"Speaking of free time, I figure that you would like to acclimate yourself to your new familiar. Shall I bring her in?"

The knight. Gods. Two days had passed since their meeting, and she still didn't have a good enough introduction. She could send her off, but Miss Goodwitch and her knight might get the wrong impression! Speaking of her knight, she'd been subconsciously calling her that this entire time, but was she really a knight? Maybe she looked like a mercenary, but to be quite honest she looked too cute to be a crude mercenary-

"Is there something wrong, Miss Rose?" Ruby could feel Miss Goodwitch's grin, even lost in her own thoughts.

"N-no! Send her in!" Ruby knew she was flushing red, but maybe her sweatiness would hide that?

Oh gods. Oh gods she was sweaty-!

"Very well. Weiss?"

The doors to her whatever chambers she'd been writhing in open. Her knight, Weiss?, had been standing outside the entire time. Listening to them. _Gods _.

"Yes Lady Goodwitch-"

She was just as finely kept as she was when they'd first met two days ago. Her ice black eyes were glowing. Or, staring. Yep, she really must have been noticeably sweaty. That, and the fact she was undressed, save for her undergarments. Linen breastcloth and shorts. Real classy, Ruby.

"Oh." Her knight was staring at her state of dishevelment, and all Ruby wanted to do was sink into her mattress and die. "Um, should I allow you to… get dressed?" She mumbles, shuffling back.

"Yes please." Ruby mumbles, sinking in her pillow even further.

"You couldn't have told me I wasn't decent?" Ruby mumbles, once the door shuts.

"I thought you would have been at least aware of that fact Miss Rose. That, and if you had been aware, then you wouldn't have minded?"

"Ugh."

* * *

_5/6, Beacon Castle, Rose Court _

_Crimson Rose_

Their first proper introduction to each other, Weiss was prim, proper, and courteous to the point whether or not she had a scroll of court etiquette shoved up her ass.

"My name is Weiss." She bows. In a fit of irony, Ruby felt so small, sitting on her throne while her familiar addressed her. Nothing to do with their height differences. Nothing like that, at all. "If you wish to know my history, I will be happy to share it with you."

It isn't until Weiss shoots her a dirty look that Ruby realizes she was the one who was keeping the conversation from moving. "Oh, yes. Yes. Of course."

Weiss's pretty jet-black eyes are rolled, and she continues. "I originally was a Knight-Paladin of The Holy Empire of Mantle, under the apprenticeships of Knight-Commanders Winter and Ironwood." Each sentence Weiss ends with a curtsy. "And, yes, if it wasn't obvious." Her jet black wings extend from her back as she kneels, obscuring her face. "I am a vampire."

"It was obvious." Miss Goodwitch says, extending her crop to hold Ruby in place, keeping her from gawking and rattling off an entire list of questions. "To mostly everyone."

Weiss kneels further in submission. "If this fact repulses you in any way, then I will gladly accept termination-"

"That is not in my, nor I believe Miss Rose's nature." Miss Goodwitch says, smacking away Ruby's wandering hand. "Besides. I do not believe we are in a position to be picky with our allies."

It's subtle, but Weiss lets out a breath she'd been holding. The way she breathes was so subtle. If she even breathed at all. "Thank you for this opportunity Lady Goodwitch."

"Don't think this means I will let you off easy. You'll need to answer to my interrogation first, and if you ever, so much as feed nonconsensually on anyone, I will have you annihilated." Marking her point, Goodwitch knocks Weiss on the nose with her crop, lifting her from her kneel. "Is that clear?"

"Clear, and entirely reasonable."

"You're a familiar, so you theoretically should be able to survive on Miss Rose's mana supply alone, provided the two of you _do not _exert yourself. We will be working together to augment Miss Rose's magic circuits and prana conversion rate together to remedy the situation at hand. So don't, be, reckless." She says, enunciating each word with a light smack of the crop. "Is that clear?"

"Y-yes." Weiss stammers, rubbing her poor nose.

"Good." Miss Goodwitch releases her hold on Weiss, retracting her cane. "As for my questions."

"Question one. How exactly did you become a Heroic Spirit?" She turns to Ruby, who was almost completely uneducated on matters of The Realm of Magic. "A Heroic Spirit, to summarize, is simply a familiar who brings forth the soul of a deceased historical entity known for their deeds of heroism. The process of summoning is almost entirely at the whims of the Gods, or Fate, or the Universal Will, and it hasn't been confirmed that Heroic Spirits must be exclusive to that criteria. But that is what our historical records say."

Ruby reciprocates with a curious question, the kind that her tutor liked. "Why don't we just summon an army of Heroic Spirits then?

"It doesn't work like that." Goodwitch answers. "Typically they are summoned in times of great need, but they are never planned. Even the most basic of summoning circles can bring forth a Heroic Spirit; all that matters is if the universe decides you need one."

"That's certainly reliable." Ruby says. "Weiss?"

"Yes. My heroic deed was my decision." It's also subtle, but the silver-blue pupils of her eyes jet away. "I took my own life after I had fallen into becoming a Vampire. It had been either me, or my sister's career, and I made the choice. My sister was destined to do far greater things than me, so my life hadn't been worth nearly as much as hers. It was a logical choice. Perhaps not the most glorious, but it was enough to allow me to be honored with a second chance."

"You or your sister?" Glynda asks. "Quite a dilemma. Just what exactly made her so important that you'd actually considered, and followed through on taking your own life?"

"My sister would have… undoubtedly protected me." Weiss answers, eyes wavering. "If she had tried to do so, then her reputation would surely have been in tatters. It was the only choice for me."

"Really? I had thought that the criteria of a Heroic Spirit was more… demanding." Glynda says. Weiss winces at Glynda's words. Was she… scared of her? "Many heroic spirits recorded in our archives were of noble heroes. The servants of Light, and Darkness. The second Great Queen of Vale, Silver Kathory. Elisabeth Balthaset, The Great Artificer of Mantle. Tell me, there _must _be more to your story."

"I…" Weiss wavers, nearly stepping back from Goodwitch's sheer presence. "With her majesty's permission, I would like to abstain from answering."

The tension in the air, outright choking, suddenly turns it's daggers towards Ruby Rose herself. Except that it takes a few moments for it to really register. "Oh! Me? Of course! I don't really know much about servants, but your privacy is still important to me."

Weiss's relief is visible, despite her attempts to restrain her display of emotion. "Thank you, your majesty."

"Not so fast, Servant Weiss." Glynda drags her cane against the base of Weiss's chin. Before Ruby has a chance to even notice. Before Weiss has a chance to do anything about it. "Don't mistake my questions as a sign of my hostility. I respect your right to privacy as much as I respect Ruby's."

Ruby pouts in disapproval.

"However, do not think you are in any way above me." She raises her cane up, lifting Weiss's neck slowly. "Do not. Attempt to lie to me like that ever, again. Though you claim to be a Knight of Mantle, and are now a servant of the Queen of Vale, Ruby Rose is to me, first and foremost, my student. This will never change. Do not, delude yourself into thinking otherwise. And as long as you remain bonded to Ruby Rose, you will respect me, as she respects my authority. Understood?"

Weiss yelps in the affirmative.

The rest of the day is spent with Weiss utterly subservient to Miss Goodwitch's questions. She'd become more docile to Goodwitch's words in the span of a few hours than Ruby had over the course of several weeks.

Most of the questions went over Ruby's head.

"What year were you born?" _(1183. So recent. She would have been thirty if her fate hadn't befallen her.)_

"What form of vampire are you?" _(Pureblood. Apparently there were multiple species of Vampires, Weiss being a pureblood, who had to properly offer themselves to the Patron Deity of the Undead. As opposed to the usual method of transmission)_

"Why did you offer yourself to the Patron Deity of the Undead?" _(Abstention)_

"What was the process of offering oneself like?" _(Much alike to a normal vampiric infection, only the victim must accept the pureblood power willingly)_

"Why did you accept the power of a Vampire Pureblood?" _(Abstention)_

"Which of the Mantillean Noble Families are you descended from?" _(Abstention)_

If Miss Goodwitch had a problem with the number of abstensions Weiss had been throwing out, she hadn't shown it. Each abstention left Weiss looking like she wanted to make herself smaller even more, and… it just didn't feel right, their first official introduction feeling like this. Weiss had literally… not existed mere days ago, and now she was being thrown through the ringer like she was a tool, out for testing.

"Ruby?"

Ruby nearly jumps out of her throne, almost having fallen out of her own seat. "Eh?"

Glynda rests a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Weiss sends her a disapproving look that makes her embarrassment all the more palpable. '_Hey, I was trying to think about you, okay?'_

"Weiss had asked you a question. Do you need her to repeat it?"

"Eh-heh… yes." Ruby squeaked, earning her an eye roll from the ice queen.

"Pay attention this time." Weiss says, barely concealing her disdain. "Why exactly, are _you, _of all people, Monarch of Vale?"

"Um…" Ruby tries not to dig too deeply into whatever passive-aggressive meaning the question most certainly posed. "Because my family used to rule? And now they're all dead." Ruby scorns, scratching at her throne for a stim. "That leaves me. Oh, and I can probably do all the cool magic my Mom used to do?"

"That doesn't even," Weiss sighs, "do you even know what you're talking about?"

'_No but at least I'm not being a total arse about it,' _bubbles at the back of her throat, but Ruby swallows it down nonetheless.

"By the gods, you don't know what you're talking about. Tell me, what have you been doing this entire time you've been alive?"

"Miss Rose's mother and father perished at the hands of a Grimm Outbreak thirteen years prior." Goodwitch answers. "A close friend of the Queen, Ser Qrow, took her to live with some of the nomads to the Glossy Southern Tundras for much of her life, while her advisor Ozpin, took control over the realm. Qrow never returned, and it took years for the search to bear fruit. By the time Ruby had been crowned, Ozpin had been two years deceased. Now, Miss Rose is the last descendant of the House of Rose, the only bloodline capable of wielding the magical properties of the Rose Throne at the Matriarch's own will."

"The Rose Throne…" Weiss murmurs, staring at Ruby almost accusingly. "But we're far from the Rose Throne here."

"Correct." Goodwitch says. "The City of Vale, alongside the entirety of our Northern Heartlands, was sacked and burned to the ground long ago, at the outset of Salem's invasion. We are currently in Beacon, a former colonial fortress nestled to the south of The Heartlands, in the Greater Sanus Range. Our remote location in the midst of the mountains and unworkable terrain are our greatest advantage, protecting us from Salem's reach. For now."

"You are correct in thinking that the powers of the Rose Throne are physically inaccessible to us, given it's current location amidst the ruins of Vale. We discussed moving the throne itself, but Beacon is unideal for a location, given it's distance from the nearest ley line. We've considered an expedition to retake Vale, but any such campaign would likely be over once we inevitably attract the full attention of Salem's armies."

"And this is the last bastion of hope for the Kingdom of Vale?" Weiss asks.

"Correct. Other than a number of isolated villages in the countryside, Beacon has become Vale's last hope. Alongside the last of the House of Rose."

"She's so young." Weiss remarks.

"You are too!" Ruby spits back without thinking.

"And immature." Weiss adds, Glynda reprimanding Ruby with her cane.

"Inevitable, given her decade-long sojourn in the snowy tundras of southern Sanus, when she should have been engaged academically. Which is why I have taken it upon myself to tutor her as fast as I can." Tired, Goodwitch rubs her wrist, drawing an Evoker's circle with her fingers, and casting some sort of glyph. Revealing a circular screen with the time of day upon it.

"The time has become late, and I have appointments with several of the city advisors. Ruby?"

"Yes?"

"Lessons one hour before sunrise tomorrow. Weiss, I trust that you will make sure she awakens by that time?"

Weiss nods, though a smidge confused. "Of course."

"Good. Hopefully I won't have to grab you two like I always have to do for Ruby." Goodwitch sighs, but lets herself smile, if a bit wary. "And Weiss."

Weiss immediately straightens.

"I look forward to learning more about you, when you are ready."

Weiss's blush is faint, but there.

Goodwitch reminds Ruby of her daily regimen, but insists that she take it easy, since she was still recovering. Remember to take her prescriptions, practice her runes, the usual. And before long, Miss Goodwitch leaves the two of them. Alone.

And if disdain had a corporeal form, it would be sweating off of Weiss in bucketloads.

"Do you have a problem with me?" Ruby breaks, once they're alone in a stray hallway.

Weiss, stunned for just a brief moment, is quick to regain her composure. "Yes. I do."

A brief lull of silence, with Master and Servant staring each other down.

"What's wrong with you!? Why are you being all… all" Ruby groans, before shouting out a stream of curses from her old tongue she'd picked up during her nomad years.

"What's wrong with me? The fact that I have to be paired with you. The hopes and dreams of an entire kingdom just had to be paired with you, and you don't even look like you want to take this seriously!"

"It's not like I asked to be lost in the tundra for most of my life." Ruby snarls, staring her familiar down. If their relationship was to crash and burn this quickly; so be it. "I didn't ask for any of this to be given to me."

"Neither did your subjects." Weiss says back. "Someone like you… you've never seen Salem's armies, have you? Your subjects, the people who trust you with their lives Ruby, they had to watch as their villages, their homes burnt to ashes and their friends were rounded up and slaughtered." Her eyes were so dark now.

"When I was enrolled in the Atlas Academy, each of our professors drilled in our heads that our lives might come crashing down one day. That Salem's armies could very well destroy our armies in battle, storm Mantle, and slaughter us all. What have you been doing!? Just, dozing off and going native?"

"I just wanted to be a normal girl, with normal knees." Ruby tries to keep herself from snapping. "I didn't ask for any of this."

"Well that's something everyone can agree on."

_Hatred. Anguish. Confusion. Questioning. Loathing._

"I don't know what everyone wants from me." Ruby trembles, trying to keep herself from crying. Not in front of… her. Not in front of this absolute...

Weiss scoffs. "That's because you don't even know what _you _want. That's something at least I'm capable of. And that's a destiny where I don't have to be led by _you _."

* * *

_5/7, ? _

_Crimson Rose_

_Mirror tell me something,_

_Atlas had been least affected of all by Salem's edicts of eternal winter, plunging all of Remnant into an unending season of chill, year round. _

_Tell me who's the loneliest of all_

_A vampire's body had no need for temperature, but that did not make their body immune to the physical effects freezing cold._

_Fear what's inside of me_

_Her blade slashes at snow; her senses in delirium as she can feel her skin cracking and peeling, bones giving away and shattering, bloodstream desiccating._

_Tell me can a heart be turned to stone?_

_**Why did you leave me?**_

* * *

_5/8, Beacon Castle, Study Room_

_Crimson Rose_

_To see a familiar simply in the terms of 'conjuration' is a gross oversimplification that distorts what the concept of a familiar is. One does not simply poof a familiar out of thin air; remember that all magic is a manifestation of the wielder's semblance, their inner reality. _

_But isn't it strange that one can summon beings of whom they had no knowledge of beforehand? For this, one must look to what ancient scholars had called the Throne of Heroes-_

This was hell. Ruby was trying to wait out the damned sunlight. When the sun came and went, so did classes. Her poor behind had been seated for hours now, and she wanted to just lean back and fall asleep, Goodwitch be damned.

"Are you listening, young Rose?"

"M'sleepy."

_Disbelief. Frustration._

Something inside her stomach twitches.

"Your honesty is a virtue that will not save you in this instance, Miss Rose. Since you've been so enraptured by that section in the _Textan van Goochelar, _please summarize it."

"Of course." Ruby yawns, and that twitch in her gut sharpens. "The Throne of Heroes is a… plane of existence, that sort of exists above ours? When a familiar is made, it's soul is transferred into a… sorta waiting area that doesn't go into annihilation or heaven or whatever you believe in. The soul… waits there, unconscious, before it gets called on, then it comes into our world."

"Crude, yet sufficient. Recite the alchemical formula just above that details the transmutive portions required to draw energy into the summoning."

"The what now?" Ruby sighs. Sundown was so near, yet so tantalizing…

"For gods sake!" A voice, not Goodwitch's, admonishes her from outside.

"W-weiss?"

Weiss storms in like a blizzard, nearly knocking all the texts and books over. Goodwitch snaps her fingers; the draperies close before a single ray of sunlight can meet Weiss's form. "I have been waiting outside like a proper familiar for the past few days, so the least you could do is respect the time I'm putting in here and pay attention to your studies?"

"I didn't tell you to look out for me! You could have done literally anything else!"

"Sure, I'll just go chat up a couple cute guards and we can go out on the town." Weiss snarls, pointing at her jet black eyes and fangs. "You are just, uugh!"

"What is wrong with-"

"Children." Goodwitch raises her cane, extending it before bringing it to a crash upon her desk. Rattling nearly every ornamentation in the room, nearly knocking the two of them over. "Please. I need the two of you to resolve your differences maturely."

"She's the one being immature!" Weiss protests. "She's the one picking her nose when she's supposed to be learning! Don't you think you should be respecting the time that others put in for you?"

"Again, I didn't ask her to watch over me."

"None of us," Weiss glares with a pointed finger, "chose either. But your subjects are depending on you! They pay for your food, for your studies, for Goodwitch's time and they're counting on you to protect them from Salem! How are you supposed to meet those obligations if you're too busy picking your nose!?"

"I…" She can't make an argument or fight that feeling that Weiss is right, "Wait, how did you know I was picking my nose!?"

"Irrelevant! I-"

"Children, Please!" Another stomping of her cane silences the bickering between the two of them. A cold, steely glare hovers over the two of them, and for a brief moment, Ruby isn't sure she'll be living to see that damned sunset she'd been banking on since morning.

"All I'm saying," Weiss mutters softly, "is that I think Ruby should take her studies more seriously. For all of us."

"A noble observation." Goodwitch concurs. Making Ruby want to just sink under her desk and hide. The last thing she needed was her only other… regular acquaintance joining Weiss's grudge against her.

Maybe the Council Elders were right. Maybe she was just one of those types that wasn't meant to have friends.

"Much of what you've said is true Miss Weiss. Young Ruby, would you care to put her accusations to the test?"

"W-wha?"

"Recite the code for me, Miss Rose. The Code of the _Ethika Sunianima, _if you will."

"Sure!" Ruby laughs, eyes about to roll over and wanting to curl up and hide. "You see… we start with a whole lotta mana…"

She gets a bop on the nose from Glynda's cane for her… attempt. Without even looking at the text in question, Goodwitch recites the assignment without missing a beat. "The world around us is _ouisa, _substance. From this _ouisa, _we draw _anima, _the miracle of life. From this _anima, _we coalesce into _pneuma, _the soul. From this, we are bound together, in _harmonia. _Do you understand what any of this means?"

The basic meaning? Yes, but Goodwitch was clearly asking for something more to it than that. Not wanting to risk another bop, she shakes her head, feeling Weiss's eyes burn into her skull from behind.

"Weiss?"

"Yes m'am. Interconnectedness. From this relation between substances of the world, is a flow of energy where we draw magic from. There are many theoretical models for this flow of energy, but the most widely accepted in Thaumaturgical academia is the Prana-Mana model."

"Recite the Prana-Mana model for me then, Weiss."

"Of course. Our souls act as conductors for the energy out in the world, known as Prana. Our Magic Circuits convert the collected Prana and turn it into Mana. When a magic is cast, we expend our mana by turning it into an extension of our reality; our thoughts, our feelings, our emotions. It's in effect, a personalization many call a semblance."

"Excellent Weiss. I see your education was not lacking."

Weiss glows with appraisal. Ruby struggles not to roll her eyes.

Goodwitch returns to her only student, and Ruby could only wonder whether or not it was possible to skip class when she held this position. "You, Miss Rose, are formless. For even commoner ladies, who enter the academy on the savings of their families, they would spend their first few months immersed in magus philosophy, conceptual magic, theoretical models of the world of magic. And yet, here you are, not even having practiced your runes during your exile. And that to me, is deeply unforgivable."

"Yes Miss Goodwitch." She just wanted to disappear, to go into her room, to go back-

"But. You are my student, first and foremost. I made a promise, to your mother and to Ozpin before he passed, to give you an education which would enable you to wield your inheritance."

"My… inheritance?"

"Noble families, well versed in magic traditions, often preserve the powers and the knowledge one acquires over a lifetime into a bodily seal, known as a crest. These crests, are transplanted over to the chosen heir, for whom the powers are conferred to after the death of the parentage. We have… kept the crest lineage that your Mother wielded… in preservation for a very, very long time."

Ruby's stomach upturns, and for once, Weiss doesn't admonish her for her reaction.

"Miss Rose, do you know what I see when I look at you?"

She's too afraid to answer the rhetorical question.

"I see, someone who has had the entire world unjustly thrust upon them, as with many nobles before you. I see, someone who, instead of spending her time paranoid of her fellow students, has had the time granted for her to develop that skill so many other students lack." Her eyes briefly turn to Weiss. "Compassion. Empathy. A real energy for the work they put in that goes beyond simple ambition. Trust me, when I say that you display a most excellent, if most unusual promise as a student."

"Miss Goodwitch…"

"But your mind is still unrefined." Miss Goodwitch reverses, setting down her book. "And your runes thus far, have been atrocious."

Ruby nearly tips back off her chair. Could she go back to the nice things about her?

"A question then, for Weiss. What makes you so vehemently disagree with my appraisal of Ruby's attributes?"

Weiss's blood visibly freezes, even more so than… was possible, given she was a vampire. If vampires had blood.

"You practically wore it on your face."

Weiss goes silent, refusing to answer the rhetorical question that was so obviously a trap. Ruby sweats, finding herself worrying on Weiss's behalf. Not for some misplaced sympathy, but a worry that she was being robbed of a responsibility.

Her responsibility. Weiss. Was Miss Goodwitch about to punish her for the things she'd said? Had Miss Goodwitch overheard their little… debacle the other day?

"As expected. I suppose I have a step towards a proper solution for the tensions between you two. Since you believe yourself to be the intellectual and battlefield superior of Miss Rose, then why don't you assist her in her lessons, Miss Weiss?"

"Excuse me?" Ruby and Weiss both simultaneously ask.

"You heard me. You two will take the same tests, undergo the same lectures, undergo the same exercises, and have the same schedules, since Miss Weiss has nothing to do with her time besides guard Miss Rose. Here, Miss Weiss can simultaneously guard Miss Rose, while keeping her up with her studies. Is this not an ideal solution?"

No! Gods damn it, no! Having to go through Goodwitch's brutal curriculum with… her? Weiss? That-

"Eh…"

"Um…" Weiss mumbles. Did Goodwitch not see they were bad together!? Did she not know what she was doing!?

"If there are no objections, then I will rule it so." Goodwitch closes her book, letting off an absolutely smug smile. Oh, Goodwitch most certainly knew what she was doing. "Class dismissed early today, Ruby Rose." She says, leaving through the tutor hall's door. "Welcome Servant Weiss. I expect pages 24-78 of Alchemia Vicapedia, along with the introductory of Nativus Gradation read in two days, when we next meet."

Leaving the two of them in utterly devastated silence, Goodwitch leaves the floor, taking off to handle what business she'd planned for later in the day.

"What just happened?" Ruby groans, staring at her texts.

"Did… she… ugh! You just had to open your stupid mouth, didn't you, you dolt!"

Ruby throws her hands up in innocence. "You're the one insulting me, Ice Queen!"

"What did you just call me!?"

"Nothing, just, ugh! Do you really think this is my fault!?"

"Yes! Maybe!? I don't know?" Weiss groans, curiously close to tears. Ruby lets her guard down, in spite of the danger of Weiss returning to her previous temper, any moment now.

"Okay, I know that sometimes, I can be… difficult."

"Sometimes."

"_Sich Verpissen." _Weiss mumbles. "Uh, I mean," she groans again, this time bothering to leave her post to sit on the floor next to Ruby's desk. Weiss grumbles under her breath. "I've had some time to... thaw out." Weiss says, softly, forcing Ruby to hold another Ice Queen reference in. "And me thawing out has let me realize that I'm… really lucky to be given a second chance. And you are too."

"Uh, I get what you mean by you getting a second chance, but what do you mean that I got a second chance?"

Weiss scoffs. "Isn't it obvious? You would be totally lost without me."

"Unbelievable." Ruby says, rolling her eyes.

"What!? I said I was sorry!"

"Weiss, you're confusing in a really shitty way and I don't know what to think about you." Weiss tries to interrupt, but Ruby refuses to relent. "You get mad at me, you've said some really mean things to me, but you're trying to apologize and you've saved my life before. Am I supposed to just forget all the things you've said!?"

And she was incredibly pretty. But she couldn't just say that, could she?

"Yes?" Weiss says. Ruby has to physically restrain her palm from meeting her own face. "I don't understand what you're saying. Or at least, I'm trying to understand. But it doesn't make sense and you're being just-ugh immature!"

"I'm being immature?!"

"Yes! I'm trying to let go of the past, and start anew. You're… clinging onto it, you… you tiny fop!"

"Well maybe some of us just can't let go Weiss! Some of us, have history, that isn't all pomp and glamour and heroics!"

At this, Weiss steps back, her knuckles white. "Maybe that's what you think my life is, but noone has a perfect life Ruby." She says the words as if they were a bitter liquor, burning the tongue. "Not even me."

Maybe they were on the verge of a breakthrough in all this mess. But Ruby with her big dumb stupid brain just couldn't back down from wanting victory.

So she storms off, silently cackling at what must be have been look on Weiss's face.

"What is it, that I said that is irreconcilable with you!?" She takes the bait.

**"****EVERYTHING! I WISH YOU'D SHUT YOUR STUPID MOUTH FOR ONCE!"** The words leave her mouth with a humid energy that dries out her tongue, chaps her lips, tugs at the psychic connection keeping the relations between Familiar and Magus.

And it splatters onto Weiss's form, her energy. Throwing all the texts on the bookshelves besides them off. The lighting is blown out, and the windowsill curtain is lifted, just for a second, casting the briefest of sunlight exposure on Weiss's form.

And Weiss's skin _burns _. Lights and and stinks like the recesses of the most damned, miserable battlefields. It's for a split second, but her mouth clamps shut after that; her eyes gouged as wide as dinnerplates. Bloodshot, against her black irises.

"W-Weiss! Gods, fuck!" Ruby panics, but rushing to Weiss's side. The vampire curls over onto her side, hands covering her mouth. A red, familiar energy crackles through her body, one that resonates deeply with Ruby.

Her energy.

Had she…?

"Weiss? Talk? Please?" Ruby asks, trying her best to comfort Weiss in the dark.

Weiss's mouth moves, but her lips don't open. They try, but Weiss receives what seems to be an electric shock in response. "MMMmmMMMMMMmmmmmMMMMMMMMMM-!"

"Shit, fuck, I'm so sorry! Uh, gods don't talk! Can you spell out words with some basic glyphs?"

Weiss, still biting back the screams she'd wanted to make, nods and snaps her fingers, getting the spell on the third try.

[Ithurts…]

"F-fuck, I'm so sorry. Y-you were right about me I hurt youImsosorry-"

[Don't panic. Need. Comfortable.]

"R-right." Tears were pricking Weiss's eyes. Gods, she never wanted to hurt Weiss ever again, no matter how much of an Ice Queen or an absolute bitch to her she was or could be. "Do you want me to get Miss Goodwitch-"

[No.]

"But you might need help…" Ruby protests, weak. She didn't want to get in trouble again after all, but Weiss came first, gods damn it!

[Sunlight hurts. But not fatal. It's happened before. Let me lie down.]

Right. Right. It was her royal fuck-up, and she had to own it. Taking Weiss in her arms, in spite of the burnt flesh smell, Ruby staggers, but lifts her knight up off the floor. "I'll take you to your room? Wait, where are you staying again?"

Weiss looks reluctant to answer. Ruby manhandles the door with her rear end, leaving the study as a mess. She'd be shouted at by Goodwitch later, but stars be damned if she had priorities.

"Weiss, I can't help you if you don't tell me-"

[I don't have a room. Don't really sleep. Maybe a comfy chair?]

"You…" Ruby curses her breath. She'd been selfish. So selfish for not noticing. "My room it is then."

Weiss's eyes widen to the eyes of saucers. Ruby flushes pink. "Yeah it's gonna be weird, but I don't know. I'm not shoving you inside a spare closet. Wait, don't vampires sleep in coffins?"

Weiss rolls her eyes, indicating she'd explain later.

Carrying Weiss throughout the abandoned halls of her own castle, her knight felt surprisingly light in her arms. Granted, Ruby was fit from her time with the southern nomads, but Weiss was so… delicate, in spite of her coldness.

And so soft, for an undead lady. She was like a helpless child now, not like the stuck up noblesse she'd been minutes before; stars this was a sadistic bonding experience. Maybe they needed more life-threatening situations to get the two of them to place nice for longer.

"My room." Ruby coughs, nervous to show her familiar her space. "Sorry about the mess." Ruby chuckles, trying not to laugh at Weiss's speechless stupefaction at her organization habits. Everything was everywhere, closets were looted, the only safe haven being her canopy bed. She'd been curious initially coming back, scrounging through her own stuffs, but this… not even she could protest Weiss's silent admonishments.

"Here." She hoists her knight onto her bed, joining her in what was literally her enclave of luxury from the world of Salem. Weiss tries relaxing, but immediately recoils when she tries lying down, glaring at Ruby. "What?"

[Your sheets. Do your attendants wash them?]

"Uh… attendants?"

Weiss rolls her eyes, scooching away from Ruby and claiming a pillow for her own.

Ruby sits up, leaning over Weiss to check on her. "Your… skin okay? You smelled like a cesspit-laden gravesite back there."

Weiss immediately glares at the comparison, but nods and submits her exposed skin to Ruby for a checkup. Mildly burnt, but nothing Ruby hadn't managed with herself regarding her and fires.

"You… seem good. You're comfortable?"

[Yes. Thank you. Now. Please. Move off of me.]

Ruby realizes she's been straddling Weiss this entire time and nearly falls over the bed, flushing red. "Sorry I-"

Ruby recieves a pillow in the head as admonishment, but beyond that, it doesn't go anywhere. "So… what the heck did I do that made you… not talk?"

[What Goodwitch said. A command.]

"A command-?" Ruby muses, remembering the detail from earlier in today's lecture. "Okay, that's… very probable. You know how to undo commands?"

Weiss shrugs, content to just lounge around. Dazed. Weary.

"Weiss, you feeling okay?"

[My body is using energy. To heal. A lot of energy. Tired.]

Ruby sullens. "Sorry. I… it's what Goodwitch said. And what you said. I was lazy, and didn't study on my magics-"

Weiss rolls her eyes, nearly yawning, but kept in check by the command. [Tomorrow. Please. Sleepy.]

"You're really cute when you're like this." Ruby blurts out. Without thinking.

Expecting to receive a second pillow to the head, she's instead greeted with the sight of a Weiss, expended and aslumber.

"_That's because you don't even know what you want. That's something at least I'm capable of. And that's a destiny where I don't have to be led by you."_

The memory stings her, a reminder of who she was before. And who she still was.

Stars, people had to be so complicated. Weiss's exhaustion must have been infectious, because she was starting to drift asleep as well. Maybe it was her own body, struggling to supply her mana.

The bottle of Salts on her nightstand is opened, an extra portion taken for today, before Ruby lets herself drift asleep. Her dreams are peaceful, but a bit cold. And lonely. So she reaches out for Weiss's body, holding her in spite of them trying to keep away at first.

And Weiss reaches back. Silently crying.

_Sorrow. Remorse. Wanting. Embarrassment. _

_Serenity._

* * *

_5/9, Beacon Castle Courtyard_

_Crimson Rose_

Today hadn't brought much clarity to her head. Yes, they'd managed to get the command off of Weiss, but everything else was just as confusing as ever. Did Weiss still… hate her? Part of her knew it was a childish question to ask, but it was a question she'd gotten used to asking her entire life. Weiss being no exception.

Today was an off-day from Goodwitch's lessons. Lessons, ten hours a day, six days a week was bound to break the poor girl. The seventh day, she theoretically was supposed to spend in town, attending services in Basilica City. But Goodwitch spotted her… agnosticism and lack of enthusiasm for the matter and gave her the day off, gods be praised. Time with the atheistic southern nomads had left her unwilling, and uncaring to feel anything about the matter.

This sort of issue was, according to Goodwitch, 'not uncommon' amongst the magic wielding nobility.

Beacon Castle was mostly a deserted lot, especially on Sundays where most of what could be counted as middle class were attending services. Leaving her privy to her own thoughts.

At least she had Weiss to suffer through with her during classes now.

Was that really an upside?

Beacon Castle was by any pre-Salem standard, a right mess. Kept only to the bare minimum by it's skeleton crew, only those rooms which were definitively in use, like the study, were well kept. Everything else was in shambles, from weathering, to unkept flooring, a lack of decorum, and outright rubble in certain corridors.

Beacon hadn't been Ozpin's residence during his tenure, and maintenance wasn't exactly high on his list of priorities. There was talk about an actual renovation budget now what Vale's queen was back, but that just felt… wrong. She hadn't even seen the outside of her castle for longer than an hour, and they wanted her to play house, funded by the people's guilder?

Surprising though, was the lack of complaint from Ice Queen on the matter. She was sure someone so prim would have given her an earful about her home by now.

A familiar sound catches her, from outside. Through a window.

That sound of a pained sob, wracked with guilt, self-pity, and disgust for everything around, and in them. Let out only when one thought they were alone, but didn't want to be. Evoking familiar memories. All too familiar.

Weiss was… crying, huddled in the corner of one of her castle's overgrown fields.

Her blade was tossed carelessly to the ground, an entire platoon of training dummies torn to shreds before her.

The forecast was hopelessly cloudy today, even moreso than normal.

_Remorse. Confusion. Guilt. Regret. Shame._

Emotions oh so familiar, it almost makes her cry.

Carelessly, she reaches out.

** "****Weiss?"**

**The voice echoes through the courtyard. Weiss's glossy eyes freeze, though not from the sheer cold. She tries to wipe her tears off before anyone could notice that she was weak. Tries to put on her familiar scowl. The one that made everyone hate her. The only face she knew how to wear.**

**The face of a Schnee.**

** "****W-who is it!?" Weiss tries raising her voice, only for it to quiver. She curls back further into her huddle, in spite of her attempt at physically grandstanding.**

**Weiss hadn't been looking back at her, yet it felt like those words were being screamed right into her ears. **

**And she shouldn't have been able to hear Weiss from so afar.**

**Ruby whispers her name again, waiting for her reaction. **

**Weiss scowls, standing up and stomping around in a furor.**

** "****Ruby, I know that's your voice!" She spits out. The last person Weiss had wanted to see her like this… now knew she was like this. Laughing at her, for getting what she deserved… **

**She was so pathetic, wasn't she?**

**No matter how much she tried to curl up further, she could see Ruby. Staring at her, about to laugh.**

**She'd gotten what she'd deserved, just laugh already, damn it!**

**Weiss's words ring in Ruby's mind as clear as the night sky. An entire courtyard away.**

**Her tears blur out Ruby's sight. An entire courtyard and body away.**

**Experimentally, she snaps her fingers.**

**An snappy echo snaps through the open courtyard.**

**When she double-checks around, is when Weiss's blood freezes twice over.**

**And she takes Myternaster out, and thrusts it forward, into the empty space where Ruby should have stood.**

**Ruby doubles over, a sharp pain drilling into her abdomen. **

**No matter where she tried to look, Ruby was there.**

**She wants to scream.**

**But Weiss also wanted to scream.**

**She wants to scream.**

** "****Get out. Of my head." Weiss growls.**

**"****I don't see anything anymore." Ruby whispers. "Just you."**

**It's the same for her. "Excellent observation. You want to get out of my head?"**

**"****I could say the same for you-"**

"Miss Rose?"

Ruby staggers, nearly tripping onto the floor. Glynda offers her a steady hand, eyes carefully scrutinizing her. Likely for nausea.

"Feeling well, Miss Rose?"

Ruby looks back to the courtyard, but Weiss is long gone. "Yeah. Never better." She laughs, darkly.

"Making progress with your familiar?"

Something wet hits her cheek. Instinctively, she rubs it with the palm of her hand, wiping away the tears from her eyes.

Weiss's tears.

"I… suppose you could say that."

* * *

_5/11, ?_

_Crimson Rose_

_These dreams felt always felt perfectly real to her. They came once a month, sometimes more when she'd spent her night crying herself to sleep, alone._

_She knows, has always known she's dreaming whenever she appears. Her warm voice, comforting hugs. She made her feel safe._

_But as much as she knew during these dreams, when she came back to the world of the awake, she didn't know again._

_Who she was, what she looked like, what she sounded like. As if it were a petulant bird, tapping relentlessly on the windowsill of an elder unable to move their neck. Unable to look, but aware of their presence nonetheless._

"_Who did this to you?"_

"_N-noone?"_

"_Aww. Well, once you tell me what noone looks like, and where they live, I'll go beat'em up for you. Hah?"_

_She snickers._

"_It's not like that." She grumbles. "Well, it is like that! She's a total bitch, and-"_

_She scoffs. "Damn girl, you really have it out for whoever noone is, isn't it?"_

"_Ugh! Stop it!" She laughs._

"_Everyone's got their bitchy moments. Some of them more than others, but that's never the whole picture. But that doesn't excuse them when they're being a bitch." She sighs, weary. "She's making you cry. And that… that isn't right."_

"_A lot of things are making me cry." She sobs, gently into her arm. "This castle is so big and I never asked for it and it's super lonely. I didn't really know anyone back at the clan, but at least I knew how things worked there! There, I was literally a nobody! Here, everyone wants something from me, because of destiny or some other convoluted magical stuff, and I just don't get it and-!"_

"_Hey." A loving arm cradles her. "It's a lot, isn't it?"_

"_Yes…" She sobs._

"_Shit, I wish I knew what to say about this…"_

"_You always do…" She mumbles._

"_No, usually I'm always making this up as I go." She groans. "Cripes, I shouldn't have told you that, should I?"_

"_To be honest, I'm pretty sure everyone's making things up as they go." She laughs, darkly._

"_Yeah, no kidding. Anyone who says otherwise is in over their head, or a politician." She snickers. _

"_Is there a difference?" She laughs, teary eyed. Sleepy. Wait, she was in her own dream! "I wish… I wish you were here with me. Whoever you are." She mumbles, drifting back into the land of the living. Tonight was short. She wanted it to last longer. Sometimes they talked for what seemed like days. Stories, crushes, girl talk, passing thoughts. Anything really, to stay longer with each other._

_But the dreams kept getting shorter and shorter. Even though they never wanted them to end._

…

"_I'll make sure that wish comes true. Okay?" _

* * *

_5/14, Beacon Castle Study _

_Crimson Rose_

At first, she'd been excited to make _some _progress regarding her and Weiss's relationship. She'd even felt some shame regarding how fast she'd written off their relationship as a wash so quickly. She was supposed to be Queen of Vale, and if she couldn't work out her relationship with her own familiar…

That, and she'd rather not prove Weiss right. Smug Weiss was already proving a pain in her royal ass, whenever she had the chance to show off her education (and she had many chances to, stars be damned).

And since Weiss was doing in her own words, 'all the heavy lifting in their academic relationship,' it was only fair that Ruby contribute as well. Which meant being gofer. For her books.

Wasn't Weiss supposed to be her familiar!? And she the Queen!?

And today just so happened to be the day where the caretaker for the castle Arcanum was on leave. So she'd have to search her mother's and Ozpin's obscene labyrinth of a text collection herself. Gods damn her timing...

Still. Impossible task or not, she couldn't deny the atmosphere of her castle study was soothing. Calming. It was a place to simply just relax when she was feeling too cooped up in her own castle, as she'd discovered in her sojourns here prior. And unlike most of her little castle,

And she supposes Goodwitch could have given her a text outside the field of Arcana. That would require her to find the damned text from one of the many bookkeepers in the city. Which would have required her to arrange her guard, grab Weiss from her practices, walk the entire distance…

No. Here, it was warm, and the outside world was bitterly cold, the weathercast today calling for light snow. Here, she had a fireplace, and an entire collection of books at her disposal, even if the majority of them would likely bore her half to death without Weiss's pretty voice reading them to her. Here, the cobwebs were many, but the spiders were mini-sized, unlike those damned frost spiders that wandered Beacon Castle's outskirts from time to time.

A faint memory relapses, one that she can't decide she'd be better off reliving or not. Warmth, against the winter of Salem. Also when the study was better kept. Held in her mother's arms, lovingly read some childhood tale that'd given her nightmares the first time she'd heard it.

Some of the bindings of the library's selections shimmer with magic whenever her sight hovers above them. Enchantments meant to guard against aging, insects and wear. A great number of texts were encyclopedias with the collection rendered incomplete; left behind in the exodus from Vale. A select few were even chained by arcana to the shelves themselves; a problem made significantly less problematic by the fact that anyone who's blood had been collected by the librarian prior could break and reapply the seals themselves.

Passing over where her selected text should have been, Ruby grumbles a passing curse regarding the necessity of memorizing the distinctions between schools of magics. Didn't they have charts or visual reminders for this, gods damn it?

As if to answer her whine, a loud voice crashes into her from what seems to be the other end of the Campus Library.

Without consent, alarm, any indication, her hand convulses in such a violent manner that might be interpreted as an illness or assault to clueless onlookers. Clueless, describing Ruby as she fails to place a name on him, but as he begins to speak, she can feel the petals of recognition blossom in her throat.

"Master… Oobleck?" She tries, fragments of memory faint. She's more concerned with keeping her poor arm attached to her body.

"Ah, so you do remember me young Reuben!" Ah. That disgusting reminder of that past she'd much rather… die. She oh so very much wishing she were anywhere but here right now, having had to deal with this one too many times with Goodwitch. "Returning to your old hunting grounds, I see?"

Goodwitch had told her that most of Summer Rose's court and servants had long since left the castle, so she'd been hoping that whoever was left didn't remember her.

Virtually no discrepancy between how she remembered he was when she was still a child, and now. And maybe it was because of nerves, but she had a hard time imagining how anyone could forget Oobleck for good.

She tries to raise her voice, readying her connection with Weiss. "It's... Ruby, Master Oobleck." Her voice is still soft. She's not used to doing this, and hoped she'd never have to do this again. "Not-"

"Of course! Yes, my apologies." He's quick to correct, without missing a beat. "I'll be sure to remember for the next time, _Lady _Rose."

"Master Oobleck…" Ruby smiles, warm enough to remind her where she was. Beacon Castle. A familiar face. A warm fireplace. And a new… friend.

Friend, hopefully. Weiss ran hot and cold, scolding her at sunrise, quiet at sunset, and was too damn confusing for anyone, but especially Ruby.

"Oh, and I do apologize for not being at the coronation," Oobleck says, snapping Ruby from her line of thought, "I had a few important experiments that needed my CONSTANT supervision lest they go awry-"

Niceties flow into glowing appraisals of Ruby's early academic performances, and for just a moment, Ruby's happy to be able to remember a part of her early life that doesn't make her want to curl up into a ball and disappear.

Maybe she could enjoy this while it lasted, before Oobleck caught wind of her decade and a half of severe academic neglect...

"If you need anything at all-oh-god-there-she-is-again how-many-times-did-i-"

It takes a good moment for her to realize that the conversation isn't about her academics anymore. Oobleck steps over to a nearby window, and Ruby was certainly never one to ignore what was happening beside her, whether she was invited or not.

Three of Beacon Castle's guards block off a cat Faunus from what appears to be her intended path, the Citadel itself. From their bird's eye view, she can tell that the guards are trying to back her into a corner.

It's a game of positions; the faunus girl appears all too aware of this, ready to dash off if need be, giving ground when she needs.

Oobleck is quick to shout something down at the argument below, but the winds and the distance between them carry his voice into the void. Recognizing the futility of communications from the Citadel study, he excuses himself with the impending need to prevent Miss Belladonna from being arrested again.

'_Bella...donna." _It's a remarkably pretty name, for such a remarkably pretty gi-wait, arrested, _again _!?

Ruby runs after Oobleck down into the courtyard, hoping that her newfound royal authority means… anything, to be quite honest. She'll settle for anything that helps stop this mess.

Oobleck and the guards are at an impasse, Oobleck's intervention at least giving Belladonna space to breathe.

"You can yell all you like mister, but that doesn't change the law. No visitors are allowed further than this point. Especially ones that have _no business _being here."

Perhaps Master Oobleck was terrifying to his pupils and his fellow academics, but to the Royal Guard, his attempts to assert himself remain exactly that; attempts.

"She DOES have business here, aren't you listening!?" Oobleck snaps. "I've been living here longer than you've been alive. I know this young lady and I trust her. She's been in the castle countless times and never caused any trouble. I can vouch for that."

No sell. "Listen, buddy. We all have…" He casts a derisive eye towards Belladonna, " _friends," _he snarls, "we want to be able to invite inside."

Something inside Ruby turns bitter, and she has to twist her knee to keep herself calm.

"Her pass, was a forgery. No pass, no entry."

Belladonna clears her throat. "It's not a forgery. The Minister of People's Services signed that himself. I watched him do it."

The Minister of… People's services? She remembers passing by what were supposed to be 'her' appointed ministers on her first tour of Beacon Town. She also hadn't bothered to remember their faces, or their names.

"Sure you did." The other guard chimes in.

"And we just had lunch with Torchwick! Had a little kip over ale!" The guards laugh.

The name Torchwick brings up of disgusting scents and hard ale. Frivolous clothes and a punchable sneer.

"I doubt someone like you knows what he looks like, much less his signature." Belladonna was so calm towards it all. If tense, but stars, who wouldn't be? It was if she had an aura; Belladonna's calm is enough to get Ruby to swallow up those heated impulses nearly choking her.

"Everyone knows who Torchwick is, even if they've never seen him. And someone like _you, _clearly has no business with him."

Belladonna's ears flatten, in a way Ruby found cute. She was getting more and more used to her sapphic impulses during moments like these. Ride her big dumb gay brain out.

"What exactly are you implying?"

"Quit getting so sensitive. Take your forgery, and get out of here while you're ahead kid."

"If you're so sure that's a forgery, then why haven't you locked me up? Forgery of official documents is a greater crime than showing up at the doors and asking to be let in." Belladonna takes a step into the placebo of safety that was the distance between them.

It's Belladonna's stage, it really is.

"Be quiet!" The guard barks at her. Looking like he'd never held a blade to something a day in his life.

Belladonna takes the initiative. Her hands gently clasped together, but it was the guards at a knife's edge here. "I'll quiet down, when you start treating me with respect."

"W-will someone collar this cat already before she breaks something!?" A cry for help. The weak finding strength in numbers. Admirable, but Blake was cute and Ruby was gay.

The fur on Belladonna's ears and tail bristles up. Her hands reach for her carried blades, and Ruby's so certain her castle guard's lost before the battle's begun.

And she can't help but notice how pretty Belladonna is, with her lovely worn golden eyes.

Long black hair flowing across down to the small of her back. An intoxicating aura of inscrutability, mystery, inviting her.

"Touch me, and you'll draw away a bloody stump." Oh. Right. Situation here.

The clitter and clatter of ill-fitted armor pieces, signalling the reinforcements rushing in leaves Ruby little time; she jumps in, using her own body as barrier.

"Wait a minute!"

"Ruby!" Oobleck panics.

Ruby's voice nearly cracks, and the wave of her most professional guard nearly runs over their own queen. She'll be the first to admit she never had much 'presence' speaking in the room, even as an outsider in the clan. Poise and posterity lessons, seemingly Weiss's forte, weren't on Goodwitch's agenda with her education.

Wait, Weiss! The overcast was full (as with most days during the 'summer' months,) the day nearing sundown. Weiss had told her that light itself wasn't the problem between vampires and the sun; that was more of an issue of Vampiric relations with the Ancient Gods of the Sun itself.

She tries again. Louder. All while calling for her knight, and hoping she wouldn't burst into flames because Weiss was wrong about her own body.

"Just what is going on here!?" Her voice booms, as a shining black light glows around her. A single mote of black light collapses into a nova of magical energy; a wall of blackened Ice, like frozen dyed waters forms a barricade between her and the stampede.

"Just exactly what did you get yourself into, you idiot?" Weiss. She didn't have the energy or the time to bicker now.

"I'm helping one of my subjects." Ruby grumbles, crossing her arms.

"From your own guard?"

"Gods Weiss, do you expect every one of our problems to be resolved in the first week?"

"I expect you to make an effort-!"

Belladonna coughs her throat. The fur on her ears only mildly frazzled by the Queen and her Familiar's display. "I'm assuming you're the queen?"

Ruby's jaw nearly hits the floor.

The guards wildly smash their weapons against the black ice, but eventually recognize the Queen giving them their job. "Your majesty!"

"Quite… an entrance." Oobleck marvels, taking a sample of ice with a pick. "These… ruffians won't leave my friend alone."

"She's being a disruptive presence!" One of them tries to shout through the ice. But with Weiss's formations separating the two groups, his voice coming off as filtered through a poorly tuned horn.

Weiss, groaning, dismisses her formations, vanishing into mist before the guard can see her. Blake's ears twitch at the display.

"She wasn't being disruptive until you started threatening her." Oobleck groans.

'_Your guard is outright pathetic.' Weiss laughs. They're holding those pikes like they're brooms._

As much as she agreed with her, Ruby had to make some… attempt at appearing neutral. "Everyone just settle. Now."

"I only drew my blades because my life was threatened." Blake retorts, but acquiesces to Ruby. Stubborn, and impudent, the guard eventually lowers their weapons alongside.

"Miss Belladonna, was it?" Ruby asks, trying not to stare too much at those cute ears of hers.

'_She's a faunus. Exactly why is a faunus here, of all places?'_

'_You sound like you disapprove.'_

She realizes Belladonna's scowling at her. Because she's staring at her ears. "Blake. Blake Belladonna."

'_...In the 'civilized' world, Faunus aren't exactly a common sight in the echelons of high society.' Weiss seems… unsure of what she'd said. _

"You and Oobleck work together?" Ruby tries distracting from her faux pas, but recieves another scowl for staring at Blake's tail.

"Occasionally." She shrugs. Blake Belladonna, enigmatic in conflict, proves to be just as unreadable in person.

"Miss Belladonna works with the Faunus refugees from Menagerie, in the Faunus… quarters, just outside the city walls. They possess a repertoire of knowledge from Mistral and Vacuo that official diplomatic channels between our kingdoms had failed to provide before Salem." Oobleck adds. "She shares with me her research, for the benefit of Beacon as a whole. At a time of total war, it _should _be obvious that the next step is to pool our resources together in a joint effort!"

"Uh, yeah." The guard says. Relaxed, but still with ill intent. "Whatever lad. Rules and rules, and she still isn't allowed inside the castle walls."

"You are being ridiculous!" Oobleck protests, nearly exploding. "Most of my research is not exactly portable in any regard, and how exactly is Miss Belladonna supposed to help me with my work if she can't even see it in person!? You're just, just-"

Before Oobleck can complete his stroke, Blake offers him a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "It's okay Master Oobleck. I'll leave, as soon as I have the documents I provided you back. The Ministry of People's Services, can explain why his permission slip was branded as a forgery."

The guards silently plead Ruby to change her mind on the matter. She strains herself trying not to scorn them.

Realizing she's in an ultimatum she can't win, the guard silently hands back the note, which Blake recieves with an absolute smugness that only Weiss could top.

It's… striking, how pretty Blake is when she's happy like this-

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Blake says, Ruby realizing she was staring again. "Your reputation _precedes _you."

"Just get your cat out of here quick." The guard says, begrudgingly. Each rattle of the castle gates only serves to boast loudly, Blake's total victory over the castle guard.

"Blake. I'll personally see you out safely." Ruby blusters out. Without thinking.

Several of her guard look motion to her, with a clear concern. "Should we accompany you, your majesty-"

She nearly glares at them. "I'll be fine. We're just seeing each other off."

"Your majesty, you don't even know this animal-"

Blake nearly snarls, but Ruby's reprimand is quick and sharp, surprising even herself. "Lady Belladonna is my guest. Are you questioning that?"

_Impressment. Surprise._

"Of course not, your majesty." The guard hisses, the ground suddenly of great interest to him. "It is your prerogative."

With the guard standing down, the Queen of Vale motions for her ad hoc faunus guest to follow her out into the courtyard main. As close as she can; the castle guard, as inept they were around other duties, were seemingly compelled to suddenly believe in their assignments and roles around the company of Blake.

"Is it typical for a Queen to be escorting her own guest from her own guard?" Blake whispers, body posture unflinchingly nonchalant.

"My dear girl, these have not been normal times in decades." Oobleck sighs, tailing the two of them.

The courtyard main eventually leads them to the main gates, emptying out into Beacon Town below. As time settles down the tensions of looming conflict, Blake, perhaps unnoticed by a casual observer, begins to cool down proper.

"I... didn't mean to cause any trouble." Blake says, a-matter-of-factly, an apology somewhere in there, tempered and hidden with a necessary pride.

"I know, dear girl." Oobleck says.

"And thank you for stepping in when you did." Blake says, addressing Ruby. In spite of the title of the girl she was talking to, Blake seemed to be undeniably relaxed. "Uh, your majesty."

She couldn't tell if it was a facade. Just as she couldn't tell if her defense mechanisms were all a facade.

Still… Ruby can't help but smile at the faunus girl. Blake, who had the gall to stir up a racket between her and the guard, who had the gall to act some semblance of normal around the newly minted Queen. Goodwitch was her mentor, and Weiss was her knight, but Blake… Blake was interesting.

"You're very… hands-on for a noble, aren't you?" A gentle tug at Ruby's elbow informs her. That they'd locked elbows walking all the way here and by-the-gods when-did-that-happen-!

Ruby must have ripened as red as her namesake, because the slightest hint of amusement at Ruby's expense comes across Blake's features.

The Queen's guest throws her a lifeline. "Sorry you got dragged into this." Blake frowns, nearly stumbling the words. "Ruby."

"It was no problem at all." Ruby reassures her, scrambling to backtrack away from everything she'd just done- "If there's any help that you need just let me know-"

Blake scoffs. Dismissive, not hostile.

Her eyes were easy to get lost in. Beside resembling a kitten's more than a human's, her gaze was that of an analyzer, scrutinizing every detail on Ruby. As if she wanted to peel her up like a fruit and look inside. And maybe serve her with some butter and milk. It all seemed so automatic from her. Effortless.

'_Ruby, please be careful.' Weiss speaks out._

"I do need an audience with the States General." Blake details, cautiously. "As a representative of Menagerie, one of the faunus slums of Beacon, I've been trying to get an audience with them for years now. But we haven't received a single indication that they'd even bother to receive us. The High Leader of Menagerie, Sienna Khan, had been promised an audience with Ozpin and the States shortly before his passing. But every time I try to bring the issue forward, something like this happens."

Blake's laugh thereafter is… bitterly cold. Reveling in the misery of circumstance, because there was nowhere else to go, save for self-pitying despair. "I suppose the matters of Menagerie matter little in the eyes of the humans of Vale."

"I'm… sorry." Ruby hangs her head. Politics wasn't the focus of her education now, but she couldn't just… ignore the issues at hand for later. It felt… stars, wrong. Despite Goodwitch's words. "Is there nothing that can be done?"

With Ruby's words, Blake gives her a familiar, yet unknowable smirk. "I don't know, your Majesty. Is there? I wasn't aware that the concerns of the Faunus refugees were the concerns of the ruling class of the realm."

She tries to clear her throat, and lie to her that she does know what she's talking about, that she does know what she's doing, that she does know about the situation at hand.

She tries, being the key word.

Instead nearly choking on her own word salad, forced to spit out what really was on her mind. "Faunus refugees?"

Blake raises an eye in concern, relaxing when Ruby proves to not need assistance. "From Salem's wars. Faunus from all over Remnant have fled here, for shelter, since Mantle, Mistral, and Vacuo haven't been willing to take in refugees at the rates Vale does. It's how my parentage came here."

Acting like a political creature… felt outright shit, to be quite honest. Was it her nomad upbringing? Maybe. But she couldn't comprehend how someone like Weiss could… thrive in settings like these!

Ruby groans, unseeming for the Queen of Vale. Enough so that Blake raises an eye at her in concern. "...Ruby?"

"I want to know more."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me! I want to know more about the Faunus refugees. They're my subjects, right? That means I have a responsibility for them! And I can probably, totally maybe get you a meeting with the legislature. Oobleck, when do they meet again?"

'_Ruby, you're giving so much away-'_

She ignores her.

Oobleck adjusts his thick glasses. "I'm unfamiliar with the political sphere, but I do believe that the States General meets from Mondays to Wednesdays."

Ruby snaps her fingers in trumph. "Perfect! Then how does tomorrow afternoon or the day after that sound Blake?"

Blake frowns, with a look that communicated that Ruby was going far too fast to cover all of Blake's thoughts. "And how exactly am I supposed to see you when even a legitimate pass gets accused of having a forgery?"

Ruby's energy nearly crashes. "Oh… uh, I'll, wait for you?"

Blank stares from both Blake and Oobleck makes Ruby really want to get some sort of filter for her mouth.

"Why not just send for an official summons?" Oobleck suggests.

"Eh-heh-heh… that works too."

Blake crosses her arms, still seemingly unsure. "But what about the guards-"

"I know that I don't seem the most mature, or most queenly, or the most refined, but I won't let my guards just control what's supposed to be my palace, and which and whichever of my promises I'll have to keep. You have my word."

Blake turns a disdainful look onto Ruby. "Why are you going out of your way for me like this?"

The one flaw of removing Ruby's political filter, was that she got far more staggered more easily, and more often. "W-well, it just… uhm… "

"Just…" Blake mocks, foot demandingly tapping against the earth for answers.

She fires off the first answer that comes to mind. "It's my duty isn't it? Being the queen and all." And has to keep her palm from meeting her own face.

"I see."

Desperate backtracking through adding even more to her words. "But it's also the right thing to do, because of how they were treating you! And I guess this is also my duty because how they were treating you was messed up, maybe this was just a case where my duty was the right thing to do, and vice versa, and-"

"Your Maj- Ruby." Blake stops her before she can lose herself. "Thank you." And for the first time, Ruby knows she's genuine. Blake smiles, and for whatever reason, Ruby knows. It was a smile that was worth protecting, no matter the cost.

"And you seem super cool and stuff." She really needed that filter back on, bad.

"And stuff." Blake gently smirks.

"Yeah! Like, I know I have my responsibilities as a queen and all, but…"

**You were never meant for this sort of stuff, were you Little Queen?**

"I… love to meet new people." Lie. Sweats. Resorts to hiding her usual anxieties with more meaningless blather. "You just seem like a really cool person and maybe we could have a lot of fun being together…?"

Blake's cheeks flush the faintest shade of red, oh so briefly.

"Uh, not that I wouldn't have helped you out if you didn't seem cool, and I'm not saying that you don't seem cool, I'm just saying-"

"Ruby." Blake chuckles, _chuckles, _and stops herself. "Thank you. I was beginning to wonder if what you were saying was coached by your tutors, or if you made that entire spiel on your own."

Ruby scoffs. "It wasn't a spiel. But I do get nervous talking to people, especially when having to tell them what I really think."

"It shows."

Ruby sticks a tongue out at her. Blake was… damned refreshing, akin to a breath of wilds air.

Blake's hair is beautiful in the sad light of the setting sun. That she effortlessly flips over her shoulders. As enigmatic as Blake was, Ruby could tell she was the faintest of smiles had kept onto her, even with her back turned to them as she finally takes her leave from Beacon Castle.

"Good day then, Ruby."

* * *

_5/15, Frost Marshes, Edges of the Frigid Sea_

_Crimson Rose_

Blake had requested via message that the meeting be postponed to three days after their encounter. Apparently their delegation could only spare that day for the following week, in spite of Blake's busy schedule.

Which left Ruby wondering. Exactly what did Blake do in her spare time? Exactly what did the Faunus leadership do in their spare time? Every time she'd asked Goodwitch or Oobleck of it, they'd answered similarily; that the matters of Menagerie, the district where the Faunus lived, were the matters of the Faunus alone. That's how Ozpin and her mother were advised to keep it, and that's how it would likely remain for the time being.

But as much as she could imagine that the Faunus of Menagerie wouldn't take too kindly to the Royal Authority just storming their neighborhoods by force and making false promises they all knew she couldn't keep, it just felt… wrong to just do nothing, by the gods.

Still, she'd been given more time to prepare, so that was something. Goodwitch, though visibly nervous at the arrangement in spite of her usual stoicism, had given her a crash course on poise and posterity in formal settings, alongside Weiss.

She'd been hopeless, so it was up to Weiss to pick up the slack as her servant by spying on the proceedings and feeding her tips through telepathy.

And Goodwitch had been unwilling to cancel today's training regimen; Goodwitch had made plans for one day a week to be taught in the field, starting this week. Next week she'd been swept unexpected with responsibilities, so she hadn't been willing to compromise this week.

"Your mission today is very simple. Reach the edge of the Frost Marshes where I will be waiting. The purpose of this assignment is to induce team-building and trust between the two of you. Which is very clearly visibly lacking."

Ruby and Weiss refuse to look at each other. The former still half-asleep from being dragged out here at sunrise, the latter just being her normal Icy self.

"Future trips to the field will focus on the application of your weekly curriculum. Because of the ad hoc nature of this week's teachings, the academic rigor of today's lesson has been… lightened, to put it lightly."

"Did you just throw this together last minute?" Weiss deadpans.

Goodwitch smirks, lines under her eyes creasing. "Astute reasoning skills, Miss Weiss. I will expect your expedition to be over by sundown. Do not worry for any Grimm or bandits in the vicinity. I have personally taken care of that. Do either of you have any questions?"

Ruby wearily raises her hands. "Were we allowed to bring snacks?"

"What kind of question is that!?"

"Did you pack snacks?" Ruby asks back.

Weiss grumbles something under her breath, before looking away.

"Yes. If you did not, that is on you. Any other questions?"

The two of them remain silent.

"Good. I will be waiting in the Frost Marshes, catching up on my… rest." Goodwitch scoffs, before taking off, dashing through the woods at extremespeeds.

[If any of you need me, simply call for my name. I will come. You have my word.]

"She seemed to be a bit… off point today." Weiss scoffs, crossing her arms.

"She helps direct the school of War Magic at Signal Campus in her spare time. She's… working hard." Ruby mutters, still half-asleep.

Weiss holds back something she'd wanted to say, before scoffing. "Whatever. Let's get this done, so we can go back to Beacon and… bathe."

"Sounds good." Ruby yawns, as Weiss scrutinizes the path before them.

"Ruby?" Weiss asks, sweet. "Can you… do something for me?"

Ruby flushes red. "Uh… sure Weiss. Whaddya need?"

"Walk forward a few paces for me. Just a few."

She was acting suspicious, but Ruby was still a lesbian. So she acquiesced.

Before something snapped, below her feet and zapping her. Hard.

"Oi! Ow-ow-ow!" Ruby staggers back, nearly falling, rubbing at her electrocuted foot.

"I knew it. Goodwitch has traps set up around this forest."

"Weiss! Aren't you supposed to be the one protecting me!?" Ruby flusters at her, shaking her poor leg.

"They're just love taps." Weiss scoffs, brushing her off. "Goodwitch won't be trying to kill us, so I wouldn't be concerned-"

"Weiss!?" Ruby panics as Weiss walks ahead. "There could be more traps!"

"Worry about yourself! I'll be safe-"

A mine sets off, launching the poor familiar into the air, crashing back into the earth yards away from the launch point.

Ruby isn't sure whether to laugh or be mortified; she's pretty sure one of those options might result in her death.

She couldn't deny though, that Weiss looked really cute all disheveled, with dirt in her hair.

"Q-quit gawking at me and help me up! Stars, I know she's laughing at us right now!" Weiss growls. "Laughing at me!"

"I mean, I'm trying not to laugh at you right now." Ruby snickers, offering a hand. Contact conducts the residual magical energy back into Ruby's body, sending her flying further into the minefield, resulting in a cavalcade of explosions sending Ruby's body ragdolling around.

Today was going to be a _long _day.

* * *

_5/17, Estates General, Central Enclosures_

_Crimson Rose_

The Central Enclosures were a series of walled-off castles at the base of the Fortress of Beacon Castle, nestled at the banks of the Freelend River. Built by Valean aristocrats long before the wars of Salem during the colonial era, the settlement had been meant to be seperate from Beacon proper. But Beacon hadn't been meant to become a fortress city, and hadn't been meant to grow to the size it had. Decrees from the aristocrat-dominated Serene Council had restricted entry and residency to humans-only; habitation from the common masses was nonexistent, and all slums were prohibited from construction within a 10 kilometer radius.

Goodwitch had been receptive to Ruby's proposal to restart human-faunus relations, and managed to pull some strings to get the remainder of the Estates General on board with her. The guard of the Enclosures were primarily of Torchwick's men, but with Ruby personally there, the most that Blake and her entourage of faunus encountered on the way to the Outer Court was a swath of dirty looks from guards and officials alike.

Since the altercation between Torchwick's guards and Blake, Ruby had more than enough time to reflect on the situation at hand. Had Torchwick purposefully been keeping Blake from contacting her? How long had this been going on? Who else was involved?

Goodwitch hadn't been much help when questioned regarding Torchwick's hold on the city. Whether that was an indication of her lack of power regarding the matter, or her involvement in this controversy was a question in and of itself.

Speaking of the witch, Goodwitch interrupts her thoughts. "I hope you have confidence in your decision, to bring a delegation from the Faunus, here."

Ruby swallows a breath at Goodwitch's judgement. "Of course I do. Do you have an opinion on the matter?"

"Yes. It is good that you wish to do whatever it takes to heal whatever divides there are within your domain. But take care that you do not underestimate what your ambitions are."

"These aren't ambitions." Ruby frowns at her. "I'm just doing what's… what's right here."

Goodwitch lays a caring hand on her shoulder. "Do not take my warnings as word, Ruby Rose. If you must know what I truly think of the matter, it is high time that we begin the long and arduous task of resolving this… matter Vale and the greater part of Remnant has faced since the dawn of human-faunus relations." Goodwitch straightens out her glasses. "But we must have our priorities in order. The survival of Beacon as a whole must take priority during your reign. All else must be relegated to secondary importance in regards to your administration's priorities."

"I can do both." Ruby says, sharply.

"Your ideals will become your biggest font of strength. But take care, your majesty, that they do not become your greatest weakness."

The first part of her little sojourn to the legislature is… amenable, is repetitive. Legislator after legislator steps up to the throne to meet their new queen, and for once, Ruby is glad for her telepathic connection with Weiss.

Who, using her shapechanging ability, had taken on the form of a bat, concealed in a dark windowsill. Overlooking the proceedings, and letting her Summoner know her exact opinion on each and every man who'd greeted her.

'_That one's clearly lying about the story regarding his family and yours.'_

'_How can you tell?'_

'_It's too convoluted, and not detailed enough in the parts that matter. But just vague enough to give him a little breathing room in case his story hits a snag.'_

'_Like that one with the orange cloak?'_

"Your majesty, how have you been doing you young lady, so good to see you-!"

'_No, that one just plain thought you smelled terrible or something. Did you remember to bathe before you came here.'_

'_Yes. I did.' Ruby glares at her, her arm terribly sore now from shaking so many damned hands. 'You walked in on me.'_

'_Oh yeah. Right. Well, good to see you're taking my advice. He's actually quite nearby right now, perhaps I can take a-'_

_Weiss gags._

'_Nevermind. I don't think he's the one that bathes.'_

Hundreds of men, all crowded in a meeting house. Whoever's idiotic idea to not include bathing as a mandatory action prior to entering session… clearly had no olfactory senses.

Unfortunately for them, Ruby's guest and her entourage arrives, practically announcing itself. If the sharp silence that had come over the legislature was any indication.

Their entrance is without pomp or vigor. One moment they hadn't been there, and one moment, they were.

They knew that everyone's eyes were on them. No need to draw even more attention than that, if that was even possible.

Blake's entourage was minimal, and miniscule. To her left, a Faunus who carried with her an undeniable pride, weathered and carved out by years of hardship and necessity. Her skin and hair were both dark; her faunus identity manifest in a pair of tiger ears and an intricate set of tattooed tiger stripes on her arms.

"I will not need an introduction." She brushes off the guards following her. Her voice booms out in the halls of the Outer Court. "My title, is the High Leader of Menagerie, Sienna Khan. And I have been waiting for this invitation for a very, very long time."

Whispers of 'terrorist,' and 'pretender' make their way through the crowds of councilmen watching them.

"Actually, allow me to correct myself. I have been waiting for the ruling classes of Beacon to honor the invitation that Ozpin himself had extended to me, for a very, very long time."

"We never received any word of such an invitation, nor did you ever bother to communicate with us." A lone voice from the right of the floor says. Numerous other voices murmur in agreement.

To the right of the chambers, whispers of slander forment.

"That is because the city guard has prevented any such communications. Any message or messenger we send forward ends up intercepted by their little web of corruption and gets turned around." Khan clears her throat. "Or worse."

"Is there any word to back up such accusations?" A voice from the right of the floor says.

"None that matters in the world of Humans." Khan says, gesturing to an attendant for refreshments; a little plate of custards, tortes, and cheeses is set out in front of her.

"Making accusations when you've just arrived faunus?" Another lone voice murmurs just loud enough to be heard opposite of the hall.

This was turning into a disaster.

Sienna Khan plucks a her delectable looking grapes from the vine, and lobs each of them into her mouth. One at a time. Whilst chewing. Slowly. The silence in the legislature is deafening, and Glynda offers a reassuring hand to Ruby in the interim. Ruby, desperate for a way out, looks to Blake, who seems to ignore her, until Khan reaches her last grape, when Blake finally decides to acknowledge Ruby's existence, and shrugs.

'_You are the queen, aren't you?'_

Ruby squeezes Glynda's hand in thanks, and leaves her legislative throne, an intricately designed symbol of authority and wealth that had been brought over from the sacking of Vale proper, and most definitely not designed with comfort in mind.

Reminder for next time; bring a bloody pillow or blanket for next time.

"Miss, Sienna Khan of the White Fang." Ruby voices, shaky but with enough confidence to not make her look like an idiot. "Welcome."

Khan turns to face her, and lets out what Ruby makes out as the slightest of smirks. "Miss Ruby Rose." Tense murmurs bubble up from the legislators of the realm. "Or," she smiles, "your majesty. Whichever you prefer. From the bottom of my heart, I must thank you for fulfilling the obligation left to you by your dear mother."

'_She's trying to test you. Don't fall for it.'_

"Thank," Ruby hesitates, almost choking on the breath she'd been holding in, "you, Sienna Khan. I see your position as High Leader of the Faunus of Beacon was well earned. Please. Call me whatever you wish, but I do prefer Ruby Rose." Her voice was stiff. Regal. More noble than she'd be comfortable hearing from herself.

Sienna Khan grins, and just for a moment, it's as if she's about to laugh. But she regains her composure, and it feels as though she and Ruby were the only ones to know. "Sienna. Do call me Sienna. I was wrong about you Ruby Rose. I think I'll like you."

'_Very nice.' Ruby nearly glows from her compliment._

"As opposed to before?" Another voice loudly whispers, this time behind Sienna.

In spite of the layers of hidden meanings behind her words, the tension between The Queen of Vale and the High Leader of the Menagerie Faunus drops almost immediately. The room is still tense, but any remaining energy in the room was the product of their spectators, not the political leaders. Ruby quietly sighs in relief as Sienna Khan quickly lists out her desired agenda for the day, which quickly incites murmurs of discontent from a good amount of legislatures.

Blake's ears relax, and she silently mouths, '_thank you.'_

In spite of Sienna's and Blake's obvious discontent with the barricades placed between them just for basic communication, none of that anger seems directed at Ruby Rose specifically.

"The laws of segregation that govern Beacon must be abolished." Sienna voices, weary from listing the grievances of the Faunus. In spite of grumbling from certain members of the legislature, most members of the house remain… civil, if not outright disengaged, with some grumbling about lost vacation time. "But we will not be content with _segregation de jure. _Until official reparations are made-"

_That, _incides a storm of angered voices from the legislature.

"All this talk of 'liberty,' and 'equality,' that this sham of our republican monarchy praises, holds empty in the face of such economic and legal injustice." Sienna finishes.

"Now hold on there for a minute, Faunus Leader." A silver haired man, clad in worn half plate and sporting a broad frame, takes the floor. Middle aged, and weathered by decades of total war. "You've barely been here for an hour, and already you demand unnecessary reparations. Exactly what do your people aim to do with such a costly proposal, and where do you expect us to get the finances to support such a project?"

"You all seem very willing to splurge on the city finances when it comes to new castles for the city rich." Sienna frowns.

"Those are city defenses you mock!" He protests. "We are in an era of war!"

"Then why not use those finances to extend the city walls to better protect your faunus subjects?" Sienna says.

"Who exactly will pay for maintenance?" A gravelly, blue haired voice jumps in. More elegantly dressed in fine Mistralian garb like the rest of his lot surrounding him, his voice is enough to command the floor. "It isn't as if the taxes from the city faunus can maintain anything more than the slums they currently stay in." His words garner laughter from his fellow statesmen.

"Which is why we need official reparations." Sienna says, scoffing at the blue haired man's infuriated glare.

This topic goes cyclical. Though a small cohort of legislators does genuinely take an interest in the debate, it's not even close to having the numbers to drown out the constant jeers Sienna faced whenever she took the stage.

Ruby stays her hand, content to let Sienna Khan run the floor. Her presence was… domineering, for a lady who'd never stepped in the chambers before. Even the most disdainful of legislators had to admit that much.

The topic then doubles back towards segregation. Doubling also in both energy, veracity, and bad faith.

"Ozpin had already abolished the Faunus Enclosures! Without these… persistent protests!" One of the men on the right shouts over the crowd. "This is a beaten topic!"

"Objection!" Sienna Khan laughs, reveling in the debate. The political seemed so… natural for her. "Menagerie, the Faunus quarters have yet to receive the benefits of the waterworks projects that Summer Rose herself commissioned. That we labored over!"

"That Valeans labored over!" Another voice on the right voices.

"That Faunus Lives labored over!" Sienna Khan protests back, earning few nods of agreement, and many jeers.

'_I'll give her this, she's very natural in the political sphere.' Weiss notes._

'_She's just… shouting down everyone.' Ruby says back._

'_No, she's earning respect. You could learn from her.'_

In the midst of it all, between Sienna and her jeering audience, was Blake. Still standing guard, and visibly tense from what Ruby could tell. But not exactly displeased.

"The number of Faunus households that possess plumbing is only in the tens of digits. Tell me, how exactly have we reaped the benefits of Ozpin's Hydroworks projects?"

"Don't attempt to minimize the issues of humans as well." A orange haired voice raises, disgustingly haughty. A voice that grated the sensibilities of anyone with half a brain, yet could easily carry entire crowds of unthinking masses. "Many of the human refugees do not have plumbing either, this is a problem for _all _Valeans."

At his voice, Sienna Khan turns around. "Torchwick. Your town watch failed to keep me out forever. I was expecting you to be more displeased by my presence.

Suprisingly, the first day of Faunus representation in the government of Vale ends without violence. Rancor yes, but the chaos winds down by the end of the day.

No policies had been drafted or commissioned. Only the matter of faunus representation was agreed on.

The Faunus of Menagerie would have two representatives for Menagerie added to the votes of the Estates General. Two out of Seven-Hundred and Fifty. This particular proposal had been met with what Weiss had described as a terribly loud shouting match.

A commission, to properly investigate the inequities between humans and faunis in Beacon regarding access to adequate plumbing and water supply, was to be established. Staffing was to be appointed by the Director of the State Chequer.

And nothing else. The session dissolved into an inquiry regarding Sienna Khan's connections with the White Fang.

And Blake had looked especially disheveled during this entire rancor.

'_The White Fang?' Ruby wonders._

'_Criminally insane degenerates.' Weiss immediately states. 'Scum, rapscallions, murderers, thieves..'_

_Something about Weiss seemed off. Sure Ruby had a special spot under her nerves, but this seemed to outright discomfort the usually cold knight. Empassion her, even._

According to Goodwitch, the practice of having the Monarch observe the Legislature in session hadn't been observed for quite some time, long before her mother. She wordlessly kept Ruby in check, knowing to look back each time Ruby felt a passion to intervene.

The role of Monarch traditionally was to act as neutral arbitrator. As likely to go wrong as it was, why wasn't Goodwitch allowing her to mediate the current discourse! Surely anything was better than this.

"Why do you wait then, Miss Khan?" A legislator from the right taunts. "You boast so proudly of your men and women ready to get to work on such a public endeavor. Why not take matters into your own hands?"

"So you can slap us with destruction of public property?" Sienna Khan scoffs.

Then.

The tension in the Estates General reaches the edge of a blade. All eyes on Sienna Khan, high leader of the Faunus of Menagerie, with a most risky gamble.

"Perhaps we will do just that. And when you surely do take us to court, we can just list your name off as the darling human who suggested this to us."

An eerie silence that seems to enrapture everyone from within the legislature. Almost as choking as the smell of hundreds of human noble men, all packed inside a dreadfully small legislature.

"Is that a threat?" A voice, from nowhere in particular, is raised.

"Is it?" Sienna Khan taunts. "Were we supposed to merely grovel at your feet, after waiting more than an entire decade for this lovely party of ours to be held?"

"Yet now you have your chance, you're about to waste the opportunity Her Majesty has so gracefully bestowed upon your lot." Torchwick, from the middle bellows, many voices in concurrence.

Blake's staring at her. She's been staring at her for goodness knows how long now.

"I should have expected no better from a band of silk-wearing flat teeth." Sienna Khan says. Not to her audience, but to…

_Help us. Please._

A volley of insults are thrown at the Faunus leader, who's been rendered wordless. Not speaking out of an inability to, but out of a sort of expecting. Sienna was expecting her. Her eyes are on her. Blake's eyes are on her. Weiss's eyes are on her.

At that, a sharp pang deigns worthy to finally stab her, running her through. An impulse is freed from its restrictions, and Ruby stands.

The miasma in the air is no longer a matter of emotional spirit and energy, but to Ruby, a corporeal haze that needs to be culled. Just under her skin, a prickling that seems to take the place of her bloodstream, nicking at the capillaries and the tubes and the veins.

**"****You, are out of line!"**

It's as if another voice is speaking with her. Her voice shakes the building itself, quieting the audience like a school of guilty children facing a teacher, with evidence in hand.

Torchwick, visibly terrified, tries to recover his composure. "Exactly your majesty-"

"No Torchwick, you misunderstand." She slows down her words, outright insultingly. "This, is, about you. I am asking you to stand down, before you derail this meeting that I have taken the time to arrange as your queen, even further. Need I remind the lot of you that these are my guests, under my authority?"

A voice from the right tries to enter the fray. "Of course your majesty, but-"

"Will you gentlemen allow your queen to speak?" Windows and openings left open for fresh air let in a gust of cold tundra wind, scattering documents and quills everywhere. "Do you take my authority so lightly that you could merely spend the entire day insulting my guests? Do you take my time so lightly that you would even deign to think I would find this tolerable?"

As the splitting pain splicing her through subsides, so do the winds. They settle down, leaving rose petals scattered across the floor.

The room slowly settles down. Her rush of adrenaline crashes so quickly that she nearly collapses back on the throne trying to sit down. She can't gauge the room for a reaction, so she probes her telepathic connection for answers.

'_A lot of people seem scared, Ruby. And angry that you just… talked to them like that.' Weiss notes, almost unfazed. She seemed… impressed, even._

Goodwitch looks like she's unable to give Ruby an answer for once, when she looks to her for any reassurance.

'_But I'd say you just won the respect of double their number.'_

Sundown arrives shortly thereafter, and the legislature is quick to disperse from the miasma choked chambers. A good number of nobility, merchantmen, industrialists alike all greet their newly minted Queen; as with Weiss's words, a great number of them wore their newly minted respect for her on their sleeves.

Last of these admirers of hers being the High Leader of the Faunus. Though to be quite honest, Ruby was pretty sure it went the other way around regarding the two of them.

"You conducted yourself very eloquently." There was much approval in her voice. Ruby nearly squealed. "As much as I dread working with the old order of Beacon, I do hope that your reign is a sign of better things to come."

"Ah-hah, I could say the same thing about you!" Goodwitch shoots her a disapproving look. Right. Queen mode. "I mean, I… concur?"

She could feel Goodwitch and Weiss rolling their eyes at her.

Blake was standing near the exit, waiting for her entourage. Ruby's good mood softens a bit; she'd been hoping she'd get a chance to talk to Blake proper again…

"I am, very famished, despite the lovely snacks you provided." Sienna Khan stretches her arms, stifling a yawn. "And I'm sure you are too. I would love to enjoy an official dinner between our circles, if that was possible?"

"Right now!?" Ruby asks, gobsmacked.

"Of course not right now, but perhaps in a month. Perhaps I'll bring my advisor along who you've taken a liking to."

Ruby blushes red. Furiously. "Eh-heh… yeah! We can totally do that! With her. Blake. The three of us! And more!"

"Excellent. There is one more matter I wished to discuss with you before I return to Menagerie for supper. Would you like one of my advisors for your court?"

"Blake." Ruby blurts out. "Uh awa-! I mean, of course, yes. I do need… a court." What was a court again? Ah right. "Yes, I do need a permanent advisor on matters regarding the human-faunus relations."

Pretending to ignore her embarrassment, Sienna Khan smiles. "Excellent. Should I have Blake move in by next week?"

'_Ruby, what are you doing!?' Weiss asks._

Blake… she barely even knew her and yet… she was absolutely smitten with her, like she was with Weiss. And it felt strange... holding emotions for a potential court member. Not to mention possibly nepotistic. There weren't any codes of conduct she was violating by inviting Blake, was she?

"I should discuss this with her." Ruby smiles, newfound confidence carrying her. "I… trust you'll be okay without your bodyguard?"

"Of course. I'm not exactly defenseless, as I would presume for you."

Sienna Khan gestures for Blake to join them, before pairing off with Goodwitch to discuss more political matters. Before she can get any alone time with Blake, she had one final thing to take care of.

'_Weiss, I can do this myself.' Ruby protests, feeling her eyes on hers. _

'_Are you insane? We still can't exactly trust her-'_

'_I trust her. Case in point.'_

'_Well I can't!' _

'_Weiss, I thought you wanted me to be more dependable. Well here I am, telling you to trust me!'_

For a brief moment, she's sure that Weiss is about to launch another protest against her, and she might have… no. It sickened her, to even think about using another command.

'_I hope you know what you're doing, Ruby Rose.'_

She feels her eyes leave her, fluttering off into the night. Blake's ears droop, relaxing.

"Your familiar is gone." The air of the Estates General is choking still. Ruby gestures for their talk to move to the riverside promenade, built for this very reason.

"She's… difficult." Ruby frowns, shutting off their shared emotional bond as much as they can. "I'm sorry things got so heated in there." She changes the subject.

"It's a…" Blake scoffs, "delicate subject."

"No kidding." Ruby sighs, just glad today was over. "I hope you and I can keep being friends though."

Blake purses her lips at mention of the word 'friends.' They were so close. Ruby was staring straight at them. Their owner pays her no mind, staring off into the riverbed. Her walk was so peaceful, and the mesmerized Queen did nothing but follow.

"Would you like to be a member of the Summer Rose Court?" Ruby blurts out, after an obscenely long peace, punctuated only by the gentle bubbling of the river. She blushes, but stands firm, having hoped to at least appear confident in her proposal.

The question nearly escapes Blake. The promenade is lit by gas lamps, shadows gently grazing Blake's features.

Her jet black hair was so long. She wanted to run her fingers through it.

"I'm," Ruby swallows, "I'm being serious. I'd like someone I can trust about matters of the faunus."

"I heard it." Blake confirms, not looking. "So… matters of the faunus?" Blake raises.

"Uh, didn't mean to say it in a derogatory way!" Ruby scrambles, which earns her an eye roll.

"Look at you. So easy to fluster. Exactly why would you pick me, of all of the other Faunus out there, or human 'experts' on faunus issues?"

"I like you." Ruby suddenly blurts out.

"Excuse me?" That gets her to look back.

"I mean, you just seem to suit the role? You're proactive and keep your cool. And you are an actual faunus, which I'd think is an important perspective regarding race relations in Beacon."

"An actual faunus. As opposed to a fake faunus, a human wearing clip-on ears."

Ruby giggles. "Oh, you know what I mean!" But Blake doesn't join her. Leaving Ruby to wonder if Blake was being serious or not.

"Do you know what you're even doing? Do you even have the authority to appoint me, Ruby Rose?"

Ruby flinches at her full name. "Excuse me? I'm the queen, I have say over who's in my court."

"You're a figurehead. Like all Valean Monarchs are." Blake says, coldly. "All your powers are from the emergency war powers given to your throne since Salem began her conquest of Remnant. And we know that if you get too in over your head, the Estates General will just up and remove you, or lock you in your room until they need you. Summer Rose might have been a powerful queen who gave you the right to wield her war powers, but you're no Summer Rose. Not to your subjects, not to the Estates General, and especially not to me."

For the first time, it's as if Ruby's glaring daggers at Blake. "Excuse me? Elaborate then."

"It's all very convenient, isn't it? The young and beautiful queen, noble and kind-hearted. Naive, and in over her head. Lost to the Carpathian Tundra for years. Discovered in the midst of the darkest chapter in Remnant's history. Rushed back in utter secrecy. And now suddenly expected to lead her people to stability and peace? I know a story when I see one."

"You think I'm just a puppet?" Ruby nearly growls. "You think I'm just some random nomad girl, dragged here by Goodwitch so I could just say whatever it is they want me to say?"

"Yes. At the very least, seems you're more astute than I initially gave you credit for."

"I am far, far more than what you give me credit for."

"Oh? Then why did your entourage allow a dangerous faunus to corner you, all by your lonesome?"

"Allow!? I wanted to talk to you alone."

As Ruby raises her voice, Blake's grin grows wider and wider. "Did it ever occur to you that I might want to talk to you alone for different reasons?"

Ruby's blood freezes cold; she's become all too aware of how isolated their little corner is, how far away from any possible help was. It was one thing to need a private word. It was another for just the two of them to be alone with each other.

"You're the perfect figurehead for Goodwitch, and your little entourage to pass whatever rules they'd like without taking the blame."

"I'm seventeen! That's an adult from where I come from!"

Blake smiles, mocking her. "I didn't mention your physical age, didn't I? You're easy to rile up. Naive. And you haven't the faintest clue of what you're dealing with here. Managing to stay alive past an arbitrary date doesn't make you an adult. It's what you've been through." Blake says.

At this, Ruby's fingernails drive themselves into the fleshy palms of her hands, nearly piercing through skin. Was Blake trying to provoke her? "You have no idea what I've been through."

"I can see that you want to help. But youthful hopes and petty idealism wears off in time. What you need to do, is to wake up. The political isn't exactly a forgiving sphere. And the first chance they get, your guards, your advisors, your nobles will eat you alive."

Blake treads further, tearing up the distance acting as Ruby's last line of defense save for her anger. "Like this."

The rattle of chains announces her attack; before long, Blake moves impossibly fast. A single sickle rests on top of Ruby's delicate, delicate neck. Just the slightest pull, and her flesh would be marked. Any further than that, and her windpipe would be cut. Shoved against the wall, Ruby's all too aware of how vulnerable she must look right now.

And just how alone they are right now. Did… did Blake lead her here for this?

"Show me your strength as a queen."

Just how… brash Blake is. Was she brash? Confident, maybe to a foolhardy degree. Blake had to have an escape plan once it was over with, right?

"You can't, can you?"

How… strong Blake is. Skilled, even if she was undeniably in over her head.

But then again, so was Ruby.

She pushes Ruby against the cold stone wall further. Ruby's fingers cling onto the cold, weathered stone surface for life.

"You're completely defenseless."

How close Blake's lips are.

"That's what they do to pawns, you know."

'_I want this.'_

Even without touching, they're so warm, breathing on each other all close together.

"They let them take the hits."

'_Does she… want this too?'_

"You look sad." Ruby finally says, almost in a whisper.

Blake finally staggers, losing her nerve. And flushes. Red. Hot.

"I don't know what's happening here. Blake." Ruby says. Her words are so cold, yet she's as warm as a fireplace. "Please. Let go of me."

Wordlessly, Blake withdraws, and backs off to a distance where they can actually breathe. It takes a moment for Ruby to gather her bearings, and another moment for her to realize that Blake was gone, having disappeared while she hadn't been looking.

She doesn't realize how red she's been until she checks herself in her dresser.

Her dreams that night would be unbearably warm, yet soft, but sorrowful all the same.

* * *

_5/24, Beacon Castle, Ruby's Keep_

_Crimson Flower_

_Lady Cathory of the Violet-Green court hadn't seen Dame Sawain in years. She'd long craved Sawain's chapped, yet gentle lips. Gods curse the Archbishopric's crusade against the Sand Peoples of Vacuo. But now, the crusade was over, and perhaps Cathory's heart could cease to worry. Sawain had sent her letters on the eve of every moon, as she'd promised, and as long as she hadn't caught some damned plague in one of Vacuo's towns on the trek back home, she'd be in her arms by the end of the month._

'_Supple lips, tender kisses. To hold my lady to mine neck, and trust mine joys to the winds. I'd fallen in love, most surely-'_

"I made you uncomfortable. I'm sorry." The window curtain upturns, revealing Blake, now privy to the scene before her; Ruby, porcelain dolls in hand. Who was drooling from embarassment on the floor.

Blake is succinct, leaving herself vulnerable and judged with her apology. Her reflexes are also on point, when Ruby chucks the porcelain dolls she'd been playing with at the voyeur in the window.

"ARGH-WHYAREYOUHERE-HAVEN'TYOUHEARDOFKNOCKING-ORTHEFRONTDOORPLEASE-DON'T TELL-ANYONE I STILL PLAY WITH-"

Blake gestures to Ruby to be quiet, clasping two fingers against her lips. She acquiesces, and the tightness under her skirt and tights grows warm with friction. Blake was in her room. On her bed. Marking the second time they'd met that Ruby wanted what was likely a serious context to be a sexual one.

And stars, Ruby didn't care.

"It's really cute that you still play with dolls anyway." Blake mutters, earning her a dagger or five glared at her.

"Just, ugh! What do you want Blake." Ruby says, overtly harsh, stunning even herself. She swats away Blake's fingers, who winces at her tone.

"I was here to make my apology. And… to let you know that it was my fault."

"I'm not mad." Ruby answers, almost immediate. Too quick to not elicit any suspicion.

"And to let you-huh?" Blake's ears droop in questioning.

Ruby groans, flailing her arms around without coordination in a desperate attempt to use hand gestures to get her point across. "I'm mad about the dolls, not about what happened a week ago, can we just talk about what happened first and forget about the dolls? I'm already confused enough as it is."

Blake sets the porcelain dolls down in the massive pile that comprised of her room. If the faunus had a problem with the mess, she didn't voice it, nor indicate it.

"Sorry about the mess." Ruby murmurs as Blake shuffles in, avoiding all the sections with knives.

"No matter. If I owned anything, my hovel would look similar, surely."

Blake joins Ruby on her bed. She wonders if Blake's aware how close they were now. "Again. I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable-"

"I wasn't uncomfortable, just…" Ruby frowns. "Okay, I was a little uncomfortable but I'm new to this sort of stuff. Like, Blake, you just threw yourself onto me! What was I supposed to do!? I'm… new to this!"

"I was just… trying to teach you a lesson." Blake says, remorse in her eyes.

"A lesson!?" Ruby's the shade of an apple fruit now. "Couldn't you go… gentler next time?"

"It was… an attempt to teach you how harsh the political world was." Blake mutters, not meeting her eyes.

"I mean, I've always wanted my first kiss to- wait, what?"

Blake's ears flatten. "First kiss-what?"

"You weren't… trying to come onto me?" Maybe sitting on the same bed was too much for them. It might have suited them better if Ruby was say.. Under the bed, curled up and hiding.

"No! I mean, I made it look that way and I didn't think my actions through! I'm the one who turned that into a… situation." Blake flusters, flushing pink, her cat tail curling around the bedpost.

"Well I'm the one who wanted it to be a… situation." Ruby mumbles, trying not to stare.

Blake scoffs. "Is that seriously what was on your mind Ruby? What if I actually wanted to harm you?"

"I-uh-are you flirting with me!?" Ruby stammers.

The hairs on Blake's arms stand up. "What!? Ruby, I wasn't interested in you. At all. Never crossed my mind."

"Well gee, thanks." Ruby mumbles, mind completely in the gutter. "I keep... thinking about it. Sorry."

Blake groans. "There's no winning with this, isn't there?" Ruby makes a noise of agreement. "Well then, let's clarify. Are you interested in me?" Blake asks, nearly knocking Ruby out of her seat.

"Ahahahaha, well-actually no, oh gods this looks bad doesn't it?" Ruby stammers, her legs and hands tensing up, pulling on each other to try and just keep her grounded on Remnant.

"Really?" Blake asks, almost as a whisper.

"I... " Ruby swallows what remains of what little dignity she'd had. "Like, I thought you were cute when I first met you," Blake's cheeks glow considerably warmer, "but when you shoved me against the wall that's when things sortof went from ten to a hundred for me and-"

Blake leans in. Their faces were so close now, _gods. _"You… think I'm cute?"

"Yes." Ruby squeaks.

"...Really?"

"Of course! I mean, look at yourself, you're all…"

"All?"

"All warm, and cute and strong and stuff." Ruby barely manages to stammer out. By the gods, those awful romantic fables she'd loved hearing in her youth were doing wonders for her charm right now.

Blake stares at her lap, breaking the eye contact Ruby hadn't realized she'd been desiring since yesterday. "Oh. I don't know what to say about that." Ruby motions for her to elaborate. "I mean I don't know how to respond. I don't get that very often."

"Really!? " Ruby suddenly shot up, invigorated. "Your hair is absolutely gorgeous. And your eyes, like, they look sorta like a kitty's, but they glow a little bit and it's so cool. I'm serious when I say they actually glow, and it's really cool and pretty. Like, the rest of you. And you seem really smart and stuff. And your ears are also super cute. You just seem really cool Blake."

The cutting pause between the two of them lent them time for Ruby's words to sink in. For Ruby, that meant realizing she'd just said what she'd just said.

Ruby freezes at Blake's glassy eyes. "I'm so sorry, I just sorta got lost in the moment. Do you want me to take back what I said? It won't mean that anything I just said was untrue, but maybe it made you uncomfortable-"

"That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me." Blake says, quickly as if to pretend Ruby couldn't hear it. She rubs away a stray tear.

"I made you feel awful didn't I?" Ruby says, close to tears of sympathy.

"What! No! I thought I made you feel awful yesterday!"

"Yesterday was pretty awkward and confusing. But I… think you were trying to teach me about who I was, what was expected of me." When Blake looks at her, confused, Ruby elaborates. "In the moment and after, I was super confused. But I had some time to think about it, and here's how I figured out you weren't trying to harm me. You're not stupid, that's obvious. And there's nothing to gain from killing me, or hurting me."

"You don't know that."

"Blake, back then I thought you were my friend." Ruby admits, the word making her feel queasy. Friends never came easy to her, and she wasn't sure if she was using the term correctly. But she was using the word as it felt to her, and Blake felt like Ruby's friend. A friend she wanted to kiss and go on dates with and share parts of her life with perhaps...

"Did you… want to kiss me?"

Blake's question hits less hard than she expected.

"Yes."

"...Do you still want to kiss me?"

"Of course."

"...Why?"

"Ugh, Blake! This is the part where I kiss you!"

"The part where you kiss me." Blake deadpans, trying not to smirk.

Ruby groans. "I wanted to kiss you because I wanted to!" Ruby seethes, pushing herself away from Blake. "I mean, because you're incredibly cool and cute and stuff. Wait, I've said that already, crud-"

For but a brief moment, the two of them don't bother to say anything. As if not doing anything might make their little situation less strange. Then curiosity gets the better of her, and she sneaks a look into Blake's eyes.

"Let me get this straight." Blake says, voice sultry. And heavy. "You're just randy from being all cooped up in this castle, is that it?"

Even as she felt her cheeks burning, Ruby could tell. Blake was just as embarrassed as she was. "M-maybe! Isn't love at first sight just some stupid fable they tell kids? I don't understand how to court people. Don't make fun of me, this is j-just normal for young adults! Like me! And you, don't tell me you don't have these urges unless you're ace which means this is really awkward right now!" Ruby pouts, crossing her arms in defiance and wiggling her body around to adjust her skirt. "You can still leave, you know."

She doesn't. As a gesture of goodwill, Ruby scoots farther back into her canopy bed, gesturing towards the door. Then the window once she remembers just how Blake got here in the first place.

Blake scoots closer.

Ruby's mattress shifts alongside their weights, and she becomes blissfully all too aware that they've been sharing her bed now.

"You're horny too." Ruby manages to get out.

"Maybe a little." Blake whispers, ears flattening, tail curling around the bedpost. Drawing closer.

"And you're on my bed."

"Also true."

"Taking advantage of poor little me."

"Hardly true! Ruby, you're the one who keeps bringing it up!"

"Oh. I…" She tries backing even further, but hits the bedpost. "Gods, I'm sorry-"

"No, Ruby, you're… Ruby, I'm just afraid. Ruby, do you not see how this might be a bad idea? You're the queen, and you want me to be your court member. Aren't there codes of conduct for this sort of thing?"

"Blake. My mom nearly tore the kingdom apart when she slept with a foreigner from the Land Beyond Remnant. There are no rules to court. I want to kiss you. Do you want to kiss me back?"

She gets her answer when Blake's lips press against hers. She tastes like blackberries, her lips coated with fresh wax. Applied only minutes ago, Ruby surmises.

Then she realizes that she's _actually _kissing Blake, and panics by pushing forward, noses crushing each other, teeth clanking onto each other.

"O-ow!" Blake rubs her mouth, wincing. "W-what was that for!?"

"You just kissed me! Randomly! What was that for!?"

Blake's eyes widen, glossy with panic. "Ah, gods. I thought, I mean I should have asked-"

Ruby leans forward, hugging Blake. "It's fine Blake. Just, a little warning next time?" She laughs, quiet and unsure, when Blake sighs in relief. She nearly has to restrain herself from petting Blake's drooping ears.

They kiss again, Ruby shifting her weight atop of Blake. Wanting to try out all the little salacious details she'd overheard from nomad gossip but never had a partner to try it with. A stubborn tongue tries to force its way through Blake's lips; Blake recoils at the unexpected kiss and pushes Ruby off.

"Blake?"

Blake groans, wiping her mouth with her arm. "A little warning next time?" She grins.

A smile tugs at the corner of her lips, and she slides forward, on top of Ruby in one fluid movement. Their lips meet again.

"Mmmmmhhh…" Blake sighs, delightedly gripping onto the other. The plain nightgown that Ruby wore to keep her warm and modest during nightfall felt choking. Burning, like the rest of her body.

"You're doing it wrong, try this." Blake whispers, gently guiding Ruby's head to crane her neck slightly.

Eventually the heat of the moment fades; and Ruby finds herself counting how many seconds each kiss takes. They break off, awkward, legs intertwined. The taste of blackberries still fresh on Ruby's lips.

"I hope you got want you wanted." Blake mutters, red on her cheeks betraying her. Still, she couldn't help but feel slighted. Their kisses were sloppy, amateurish, and not at all like the stories she'd overheard were like.

Then her mind comes back to the fact that Blake is straddling her.

"You're so heavy." Ruby breathes.

From the looks of it, Blake just realizes too.

"Sorry."

"No. In a good way. Like when you're all excited and can't think of anything so your mind feels heavy because it's not doing anything and it's staring in one place-"

The heat returns, Blake lapping at Ruby's lips. "Open your mouth." Ruby receives her, and Blake's tongue writhes against her own. Ruby's legs wrap around Blake's waist, trapping them in their open mouth kiss.

It briefly crosses her mind whether or not she should tell Blake about her body when wandering hands reach up her nightgown, cupping her breasts in one motion. Stripping away the last of her sanity, and her inhibitions.

"They're… not as big as yours." Ruby moans.

"They're beautiful." Blake groans.

All she can think about was how unfair it was Blake's armor was still on. Very unfair.

"_You're beautiful."_

oOoOoOo

They'd managed, in spite of the night cold, coat the sheets of their shared bed in sweat. For just one night. A weary embrace after hours of cuddling, drifting in and out of sleep. For now, content to let simple lust carry them back and forth. Lazy words on sweet nothings in the moonlight, punctuated by hushed, giggly whispers between the two of them.

Salem's edicts of Eternal Winter may have cast Remnant into eternal frost, but Blake was so damned warm.

She'd been about to doze off again, when Blake wearily mumbles something.

"Yeah Blake?" Ruby yawns, delirious with content.

A pregnant pause, Blake just happy to bask in the afterglow. "I accept." She yawns, resting her head against Ruby's bare chest.

"Accept?" Ruby flushes. "You... wanna be together?"

"Huh? Ah, cripes, no. I mean… maybe, but that wasn't what I was talking about."

Ruby's heart nearly deflates. Shatters in that exact moment, though she should have known the answer beforehand. But it still stung. "Oh…"

Blake's eyes flash open, worrying. As a gesture of comfort, she claims Ruby's body in an embrace. Wandering hands massaging her bared back, shaking. "I need time. Time to think about it. What I meant was your offer a week ago."

The court invitation. Somehow, it felt so unimportant to Ruby right now that she'd wondered whether or not to just fall asleep right on the spot and deal with it tomorrow.

"I accept. I think becoming part of your court…" Blake shudders, bare breasts in the moonlight, "will be a very productive opportunity for the two of us."

Ruby sighs as traveling arms caress her bare shoulders. Sweaty. Warm. Caring.

"Would you like to move in with me then? As my court member?" Ruby sighs, as they break off.

Blake purses her lips, before nodding in the affirmative. "Yes, but in a spare room for now."

Ruby frowns. "You don't wanna…"

"Ruby, no offense, but your room is a cursed mess."

That… she couldn't contest. And was entirely fair for her. "That won't mean the end of our trysts… living in the same castle as you, not being able to touch you like this… the thought of it drives me crazy."

Ruby flushes a deep red, not knowing how to take the compliment. How could she, when she'd felt all her entire life her body was… undesirable?

Which left the question still; did Blake want her? Sure they hadn't known much about the other, but Ruby had fallen for her already.

"What about us then?"

Blake's demeanor shifts. Discomforted. "I'm… not sure. Not right now. Too fast. But I'm not totally disinterested in something… like that." She doesn't meet her eyes when she talks.

"I'll… take whatever I can get." Ruby sighs.

"For now… let's just be friends who kiss each other sometimes, and maybe more."

"Maybe more." Ruby teases, cheeks a rosy pink. "And I was supposed to be the pure and innocent one."

A lazy kiss meant to shut her up draws out moans from the two of them. Soft moans, that were smooth and thick like caramel drip.

"You know what I mean." Blake groans. "Right now… I just want to get some sleep."

"My Blake." Ruby says, drunk with affection. They would most certainly smell less than pleasant when they came to, given their sweat and Menagerie's lack of running water. But Ruby pulls Blake as close as she can. Lovingly, at least for one moment. Tenderly, at least for one night.

They could take a bath together later, after all. Just the two of them.

"You'll have my answer… by the end of next month. I promise."

As much as Ruby wanted to trust her, (and she did!) there was something to Blake. Aura like, subtle, that tempered that trust. Warning her. And Blake seemed all too aware of that presence.

* * *

_5/27, Beacon Castle, Courtyard_

_Midnight Lily_

"You've been getting awfully close to Ruby recently, haven't you?"

The question ambushes her behind an out of reach corner in the midst of one of her scans of Beacon Castle. Though her scent gave her away from a mile off. And her delusions that she could track her undetected were just that. Delusions.

"You're out of your league, _Schnee _."

At the mention of her family name, Weiss nearly explodes into anger, storming out of her hiding spot, as if she was channeling her furor into something corporeal "And exactly why are you associating that name with my identity?"

"You just gave it away." Blake scoffs, rolling her eyes. "Any faunus on Remnant knows each Schnee by name, Weiss. Your family name is a literal plague upon us all."

"Well I'm not the only one hiding secrets, rapscallion." Weiss taunts back, taking the bait. "You came here on purpose. Which means you knew I was following you."

Weiss was easy to rile up. A pretty rich girl like her had little to no experience being challenged in the real world, surprise, surprise. "You could just be perceptive. Or paranoid. Doesn't hurt to have one or the other."

"Fair enough." It didn't hurt that Weiss was most definitely the cute sort when riled up. A poor little pup, forever stuck chasing its own tail, to the laughter of all. Just for the reaction alone, she briefly hoped that Weiss somehow could read her mind. "Ruby may be an absolute dolt, unfit for her service, but am I supposed to just believe that you're just a Faunus who just happened to know her way around the worlds of academia and politics?" Her eyes grew furious. Sharp. Enticing. "You carry yourself as if you could die any second. Maybe it's because of your animal instincts, bur I know it's something more."

She restrains herself when she hears the words 'Animal Instincts.' And clears her throat, trying not to break her mask. "You're more observant than most would give you credit for, Schnee. But your arrogance clouds your judgement."

"Excuse me!?"

"I'd say you're the one unfit for duty, Schnee." Blake says, soft and bored. Weiss's defenses are collapsing before her eyes; she wore her weaknesses on her sleeve, and anyone not able to notice them was either an idiot, or too nice for their own good. "Look at you, you're shaking." Blake grins, wickedly as she leans in, scraping away Weiss's personal space. "I bet you couldn't take a single piece of criticism from a commoner like me."

"I most certainly can!" Weiss harrumphs, crossing her arms. "B-bring it on!"

It was such a tragedy really. The former heiress to the Empire of Solitas was just another bumbling fool, like her. Her words were interwoven with ignorance, not malice (in spite of the fluid barrier between the two). Her first life came from a place of privilege, not malice. Yet as with most politics and wars, there always seemed to little difference between the two.

Blake clears her throat. If she's going to do this, she's going to be honest. "You're an absolute arse to Ruby and me." _Undoubtedly, the biggest arse in all of Beacon, ironic given her lithe yet toned form. _

"You think you're better than everyone else because you're a Schnee, even though you don't want to be associated with it." _Comes with the family name. _

"Nearly every word that comes out of your mouth is a damned insult." _Your lips are so kissable. Damned honeysuckle. Begging to be bitten. Suckled on. _

"You don't look like you've made yourself useful a single day your entire life." _I can't help but want to carry you around. Your cute body, struggling against my grip. I couldn't even begin to imagine the look on your face. _

"I hate the way you dress like you haven't heard of the color spectrum outside of white." _It suits you so well. Helps you shine like the lost sun, before Salem. Sparkle like my mother's teeth. Glow like the Great Tree Moon._

"I hate the way you smell." _Faint everblossom, with a hint of lavender. Memory of Coriander, splashed with three drops of a pigeon's blood._

"And I hate the way your voice sounds." _Every time I hear your voice, I can't help but imagine you screaming my name-_

Gods save her. The hormone therapy she'd been on for so long had kept her mind in the gutter from day one. And those smut novellas Ilia had loaned her so long ago hadn't helped matters.

"And your hair keeps clogging the bath drain-"

" _Arschloch! Geh zum Teufel! _You're using this as an excuse to insult me!" Pushing Blake aside, Weiss storms off, fuming. Blake calls after her.

"Even with all of that said, from what I've seen so far, I don't hate you Weiss." Blake mutters, sad almost. "Most roommates are far worse in this regard."

Weiss stays, though refusing to face her. "In my full assessment, you act like a complete child." Child, adult. Maturity was a porous, fickle thing really. But if Weiss couldn't claim to possess it, Blake was right there with her, Ruby not too far ahead. "You know, I think Ruby likes me more."

"I've noticed." Weiss admits, glossy-eyed.

"I don't think you understand, Schnee." Blake whispers, glancing around for any unwanted company. "Our lips met yesterday, and I believe I took her first kiss."

Weiss's pale skin whitens even further somehow. "W-what?"

"More than that, we've been together."

"Together?" Weiss's red face was delectable. Glorious.

"Together Schnee. We've gone all the way."

"All… the way?"

She wanted to hold her down. "Use your brain, Weiss."

"I wouldn't… I don't know of it!" Weiss stammers, burning red, choking on the lie caught in her throat. "I most certainly do not have any desires of that sort!"

"You finger yourself almost every night." Blake deadpans, motioning to her ears. "All that pent-up tension you always carry around's gotta go somewhere, I suppose. I'd be surprised if Ruby hasn't heard by now."

It's as though Weiss is trying to decide whether to scream, faint, strangle Blake then and there on the spot. She settles on just freezing in place and going paler she'd ever thought possible for an undead.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of. Besides. I'd know a sapphic when I'd see one." Blake grins, struggling not to fall over with mirth. "They have a certain... smell in my opinion.

Weiss bites down an insult. Caked in sweat, in spite of the cold.

"Am I wrong?"

She could imagine the sparks in Weiss's pithy little brain, struggling not to fry the poor girl to death. "I am... not sure if I'm attracted to ladies in any such way-"

"Bullshit Weiss." Blake snarls, Weiss flushing red, "Every night I've gone to sleep, you've gotten yourself off, whispering Ruby's name. And when you haven't, Ruby manifests in your dreams, doesn't she?"

Suprisingly, Weiss doesn't suffer a stroke, like she'd expected of her.

Delicate, soft but calloused hands grab her by the nape. Ice cold, her eyes desperate. Pulling her in with a force not even the most perceptive could predict. "Show me." Weiss growls.

And just like that, Blake loses the breath she'd been holding onto. Terribly self-aware of what she'd eaten last. Herring frottage, with black coffee she'd run to Menagerie for. "What?"

She doesn't recoil from how gnarly her breath must have been. "Kiss me, damn it!" And just like that, the undead heiress of the Schnee Family of Atlas had her lips puckered out to a simple faunus who'd just met her days ago. Even more surprisingly, Blake leans in.

Their lips meet. Blake is timid, careful. Weiss is absolutely terrible, lips unmoving and nearly dead on arrival. And they're both chapped to hell by the cold, dry weather today. It's almost mechanical, in a way. Like she'd gone through the motions before, and was just applying the same template for their kiss. But there's a curiosity there. A quiver, when Blake's tongue laps against her tongue. She smiles against their kiss Blake wets her tongue over her chapped lips briefly.

Weiss trembles. Whimpers even. She's almost like putty in her arms, the ice in her heart slowly thawing. Their bodies wanting. Weiss's template won't serve her here, not when lust and actual desire is added to the mix.

Then she pulls away. Blake has to restrain herself from pushing back in.

"Was that a mistake?" Blake breathes, eyelids heavy.

"You're kissing the ex-heiress of an Empire that virtually runs on the economic exploitation of... the Faunus." Weiss breathes, eyes wracked with the guilt of a sin she'd never asked for, yet she'd carry with her all of her life. "I don't think I should be the one worrying about making a mistake here."

Her words are more than enough for Blake to let go of her inhibitions, pressing against Weiss. "I am. You don't know how much I've wanted something like this. A Schnee, in my hands, to treat like the dirt underneath my feet. A Schnee I can corrupt, who I can drag down to our level."

At this, Weiss cackles silently, laughing. Not at her, Blake could tell that much. "I've kissed men before, I've even slept with them to please father but..."

Another kiss, messy as Ruby's flooring. Weiss's taste reminds her of Nightshade, Castor, Hemlock, Snakeroot. Every part of her brain screams at her to break off the kiss, to reconsider, only to be stifled when Weiss sighs into her mouth. "I'm not a male. Not a true lady either, but very much feminine." Blake whispers, biting and suckling at Weiss's lips.

Weiss sighs into the embrace, arms wrapping around the nape of her neck. "You're so beautiful."

Blake nearly growls at the word _lady. _"And you're just horny."

Weiss's breath, once cold, has turnt desperately heated. "You are too."

"I want to hate you. I wish I hated you. _But I can't._"

By the stars, she wants more. Calloused hands reach up Weiss's dress, brushing against soft skin ice cold to the touch.

It's when Weiss's fingers reach for her ears, that Blake's senses finally decide to return. Violently, and hands that just before, were gently squeezing the small of Weiss's back, suddenly throw her off of their embrace. Weiss, sad from the loss of contact, trips over her own stupor and falls to the floor. Her display of slapstick turns her a shade of violent red, matching the tips of Ruby's hair.

Blake scans around for any witnesses to their little escapade. None. "You're just using me to get closer to Ruby." Blake mutters, not even bothering to look at the dazed girl in the eyes.

Weiss's eyes are glossy. Infuriated, almost, from the premature cessation of their embrace. "B-Blake!"

"You tasted good." Blake grumbles, hiding her face with her arm. Any more teasing, and she was sure Weiss would explode. Or her. Both, really.

"G-get back here-"

"That's genuine." Blake adds, looking away. Weiss didn't seem the sort to ever take compliments, in spite of having enough pride to put the sins to shame. "And yes, you are terrible at kissing."

Weiss's eyes widen to the size of saucers.

She starts off, leaving behind the mess she'd gone and made.

"By the way, you're still interested in being a better familiar to one-up Ruby, right? Going down on her every now and then certainly would earn you some points. Help her relax."

A sharp choking sound was all that was left behind.

* * *

_5/28, Beacon Castle, The Study_

_Silver Snow_

Weiss couldn't believe her sodding eyes.

"Ruby and Weiss. Good to see you two made it on time." Goodwitch steps in, as if perfectly fine with the current... anomaly in their class.

"Excuse me!? What is she doing here!?" Weiss demands, casting a pointed glare at Blake, seated in the front of the room, table turned and facing the only two students enrolled (to put it politely) in the class.

"Hey." Blake waves.

A light tap from Goodwitch's cane bops Weiss on the nose. "Miss Belladonna will be joining us indefinitely as my teacher's assistant. She'll be accompanying us during lectures, helping me grade assignments, arrange lessons, add supplementary material, and occasionally teach while I'm burdened with official duties. Weiss, are you running a fever?"

"No!" Weiss nearly rolls over onto the floor. "Doesn't she have, other things to do!? Like… loitering!?"

"She volunteered herself." Goodwitch says.

"Plus," Blake glares, subtly backed up by Goodwitch, "I was relieved from most of my duties at Menagerie by Sienna. And since I'm living here now, might as well put myself to use with Oobleck and Goodwitch." Weiss doesn't miss the utterly smug grin Blake gives her though. "But I'm happy you're concerned for my well-being, Ice Queen."

Didn't Ruby have anything, anything to say about this!?

None apparently, since the Queen of Vale had fallen sound asleep at her desk, drooling all over her pages and nearly spilling her milk. How regal.

"Speaking of which, I guess it's time for the surprise quiz Goodwitch?" Blake smiles, clearly struggling not to cackle. "I wrote the first three questions myself, princess."

Goodwitch adjusts the room lighting, preoccupied with casting the necessary runes. Weiss flicks her wrist, whispering out that familiar rune she'd known oh so well.

_Drücken._

The entirety of Blake's book tower stacked atop her desk falls to the floor, spilling bookmarks and notes everywhere.

"Weiss, I expect you and Ruby to be finished with your answers by the time my light wears off." Goodwitch says, snapping her fingers to raise a mote of light, before turning to her newly appointed assistant. "Blake, do pick those up, and try to avoid being so clumsy in the future."

"Y-yes m'am." Blake was close to grumbling.

"And I expect you to keep up with the two of them on the readings. As important as your work with Oobleck and your pornographic novellas are, I'm sure _you _could stand to keep to pace with what Ruby and Weiss are learning."

The shade of red Blake had turned that day had almost matched the decor of Ruby's formal wear.

* * *

_5/30, Beacon Castle Dining Hall_

_Crimson Rose_

Valean Court tradition held that all members of the Queen's Court dine alongside her when it was time for lunch and supper. A tradition that Weiss's appearance just had to remind Goodwitch and the barebones castle keep about.

Eating with Weiss was tolerable, if hair-pullingly tense. They mostly got by through helping themselves to the freshest watered down lagers the city had to offer, picking at their food as they discussed the day's lessons, the assigned readings, just anything that kept them from focusing on each other.

_Confusion. Awkwardness. Fearfulness. Remorse._

Sure, damned be the occasional pangs of the heart about the current state of their relationship, but Ruby hadn't had a moment to breathe just by herself in so long. That voice in her dreams wasn't answering her anymore, and she didn't know what to do now, stars be cursed. Why couldn't it be so simple, like a formula in a book?

Why was Weiss so damned pretty!?

"Is there something wrong?" Weiss raises her voice. Ruby realizes she'd been staring at her for the past minute now while she'd supposed to have been listening to Weiss's explanation for the conversion rates of Prana types.

Specifically, the milk moustache formed on Weiss's upper lip from her drink.

_Embarrassment._

Ruby snickers, giving it away. So very worth it, despite the earful she'd just given herself.

Weiss sets an inquisitive finger on her upper lip, then groans, wiping off the offending smudge off her face.

"I honestly thought facial hair made a good look on you princess." Blake chimes in, seated at Ruby's other end. Plate full of salted herring and salmon chunks, glass emptied of milk, buttered bread, complete with a chapbook from the masses.

Yes, when they said that it'd been tradition that all members of the court dine together, it meant that _all _members of the court dine together. In spite of the objections of… well, everyone.

The castle had become a shared space in so little time. Fortunately, there was far more than enough space for all three occupants to have space to themselves when they needed it. But sometimes, their lives just quite honestly crashed into each other, despite the attempt at maintaining some semblance of privacy. Yesterday's example being Weiss's meltdown when Ruby walked in on her bath time, needing to pee.

For a second, she's certain Weiss is about to die a second death, regarding how they were all being immature and unbecoming of their roles.

But then she comes back in a way that completely surprises her. Blake as well, from the way her ears stand. Stars, likely even surprised Weiss herself.

Weiss giggles. And smiles.

_Delight. Embarrassment. Shock._

As much as it was embarrassing for the two of them to be telepathically communicated, it did come with its own perks for one of the involuntary parties at times.

"I mean," Weiss scowls, stammering out incomprehensible word clutter before giving up and slumping down. "It's the food here. It must literally be driving me insane."

"What's wrong with the food?" Blake asks, dipping another piece of herring. Ruby must have been… more sympathetic to Weiss's plight, given Beacon's… limited culinary selections.

"By the stars, use your taste buds! Everything! Fish frottage, shrimp and cheese, soused herring, buckled codfish! Tuna on pasta, Fishcakes! Scallops, oysters, crayfish I didn't think there'd be so many accursed fish in the bloody seas but here I suppose if it exists we'll cook it!"

Blake plops another piece of salmon in her mouth. "I don't see what's the problem here."

Weiss was seemingly at a crossroads; whether to storm out, have a tantrum, or hurl up all the sealife she'd eaten thus far. "I've even had to try salmon for gods sakes! Salmon! Bloody peasant food! And I've eaten so much damned salted herring here for the past few weeks that my breath is beginning to foul up like one."

"It is." Blake quips, earning a strangely visceral glare from Weiss. Blake flashes a brief smile, leaving Ruby to wonder what exactly happened between the two of them. "I don't even understand what you're complaining about. You don't even have to eat like us, aren't you supposed to be a familiar?"

"Can't you drink blood?" Ruby adds, earning a nod from Blake.

"That's not required of me." Weiss crosses her arms. "As long as I'm your familiar, I don't need partake in that barbaric, inhumane ritual that is the consumption of blood, despite it's… _exquisite _tastes." Ruby swore she could see Weiss shudder.

"Bringing us back to my first point. You don't have to eat like us. Why bother?"

"Do vampires get full if they don't need the nutrition from eating?" Ruby wonders out loud. "What do vampire bodies do when the food goes into their body? Does it come-"

"RUBY!" Weiss screams at her, Blake in mortified agreement with Weiss for what seemingly was the first time in her life.

"Just because I'm now exempt from my previous… bodily necessities, does not mean I wish to be exempted from the more… pleasurable of them." Weiss stammers, trying not to blow a fuse. "Specifically the gastronomical one!"

"Wow Weiss." Blake nips at her fingers. "That was an extraordinarily convoluted way to say you like eating food like the rest of us."

"It also lessens the prana strain on Ruby's magical circuits because my body can contribute some energy into our relationship." Weiss adds, blushing furiously. "And… so what!? Don't you two like eating food too? Food that has a variation beyond whatever comes from the water?"

Neither of the two of them had any objections to Weiss's point.

"What about your livestock? I've seen several of the pastures on my nightly walks around this damned citadel, surely you could bother to order one to be slaughtered?"

"Sorry Ice Queen, but livestock here's valuable. I know you're used to not really thinking about the price of food or where it comes from, but the land here is terrible for grazing, so it isn't exactly cost-effective to go around slaughtering your few sources of eggs and butter. As for the crops, same issues. Not exactly a great place for planting cereals. So we're stuck with fish until we decide to do something about that."

Weiss crosses her arms, flushing red for whatever reason. Another passing thought about how cute Weiss is when she's flustered resurfaces, but then Weiss somehow makes it all worse by grabbing Ruby's hand.

"...Weiss?" Her familiar really looked as though she wanted to be anywhere but here right now. For the first time in her life, Ruby wished they could go back to studying.

"I know… that you have a lot on your plate. With the current political situation, and our deteriorating city guard, and basic castle maintenance-"

As Weiss rambled on about the long list of responsibilities Ruby's court had been entrusted with, Ruby could only stare, a mild pang of nausea, anticipation rearing its ugly head. Weiss wasn't… admonishing her? "Weiss?"

It all goes over her Weiss's head as she babbles on about circumstances, the expectations the aristocracy had to meet for their subjects. It was if she was reciting an entire course on social structures in the span of minutes, and stars Ruby did not want to think about classes while she was supposed to be enjoying dinner-

"Which is why I wanted to extend an invitation for you to join me in… activities which we can do in a pair bond, as people so typically do."

"Wait, what?"

"Can you actually pay attention when someone is talking to you, you juvenile buffon! This was exactly my case in point. Since Miss Goodwitch does not have the time for ettiquette lessons, I was suggesting that we spend time with each other. You will surely improve your immature social mannerisms, while I get to look at you, and spend more time with you. Is that so hard for you to understand?"

Yes. "Weiss, are you drunk?"

Weiss flushes in confusion, before returning to her familiar pale scowl. "What kind of question is that!? Of course I'm okay!"

Blake was clearly in a struggle not to laugh behind her. Did she have something to do with this?

"You've been insulting me the entire time we've been together. You've never even said you're sorry once, and I wouldn't be surprised if you've never even said it once in your life."

"She also uses up most of the heated water in the bath." Blake chimes in.

"So, no. I don't want these 'lessons' with you because you're a jerk and the last person I'd want these sorts of lessons from." Ruby snarls, separating her books from their shared pile.

"Excuse me!? Ever since Blake moved in, she hasn't even bothered picking up after her hair! It's gotten everywhere!"

Blake doesn't even bother acknowledging her protest, attention fully captured by her novella.

"And they aren't lessons." Weiss crosses her arms. "Think of them as… learning experiences that are enjoyable even for someone of your academic caliber."

"Weiss, I'm pretty sure you're drunk." Ruby snarls.

"Every now and then, we would go out into the city, just the two of us. Walks amidst the castle gardens, private dinners at the most accomplished cooks Beacon town has to offer, and personal, one-on-one time with me. How could anyone say no to that?"

Blake finally lets out a snicker, earning herself hell behind Weiss's vampiric eyes.

"You're… courting me." Her jaw was nearly on the floor.

"Exhibit A, of your very crude terminology."

"Sorry Ice Queen." Blake says. "Would the 100% Weiss experience be a more accurate depiction?"

Ruby blushes furiously, and was also furious. Well, not angered persay, just in shock. Weiss courting her wasn't something she'd been expecting, her earlier dreams be damned. And now she had Blake. "Alright Weiss. I need you to do something first."

Her own words are cold. Tired.

"Exhibit B, but I will forgive you and acquiesce to your demands."

"Take your quill pen." Weiss does so. "Write down these letters, one at a time."

"You can just tell me to write-"

"N."

"N." Weiss repeats.

"O."

"O."

Ruby crosses her arms. "Period."

Weiss tears up the sheet of notes in a furor. "I don't think you understand what I am… trying to get across." Her cheeks are so warm. Her words are so cold. "Though you are, for your position, hyperactive, childish, ill-trained, and dim-witted, I know that I can be a bit… difficult to work with."

Surprisingly, when it was interlaced with five insults, Weiss's one concession felt quite inadequate, even if coming from the Ice Queen's mouth.

"But I've had time to think on it, and I suppose that if I'm going to be stuck with you, then that means you're also stuck with me. So I've been trying to be… nicer." Weiss says it all as if she considered whatever _that _was supposed to be, an actual apology.

Hadn't she wanted this? Doesn't she still want this? Both her and Blake?

She looks to Blake, for any sign of approval. The disinterested faunus shrugs, communicating '_Hey, if you want to date Miss Delusional, can't exactly stop you.' _

She knows her answer. "Sod off, Weiss."

"What?"

If Ruby was like a brick wall when it came to her own emotions, Weiss was a torn down foundation mixed by some idiot who'd forgotten to toss the limestone in. "It's just that, I mean, you're really, I think-!" Her thoughts are growing increasingly incoherent; some sort of wicked, twisted adrenaline bubbles upside her stomach and turns her words cruel. "You're just being ugh!"

"Ugh?"

"All stupid and confusing and stuff! Okay?"

"All stupid and confusing and stuff." Weiss repeats, mockingly. Ruby grits her teeth.

"Should I…" Blake awkwardly motions for the door.

"Now you want to be all nice with me? Because you're stuck with me? Do you even know what being nice is!?"

"Certainly not the way you're acting, you, you insolent child! Explain to me why someone normal, if they were in your position, wouldn't accept this apology?"

_Confusion. Guilt. Pleading. Wanting. _

Someone normal.

"See! You think being nice is all about kissing ass and sucking up to people who can control your future. Well guess what!? I don't want any part of that! I don't want the bee's knees, or the Queen's knees. I just want normal knees!"

"What is it with you and your obsession with honeybees!?"

Weiss couldn't hit the damned target even if Ruby painted it on her own forehead for her to mark. "Whatever Weiss. I may be childish and stupid… but you're a big stupid jerk that noone understands."

She's tempted to leave it at that. But she's always been good at hiding away those edges of herself she'd rather not present to others. Everyone was, right? "And I'm pretty sure that's way worse than being a child. Gods Weiss, I don't even know why I had a crush on you."

Weiss turns furiously red. Anger washing over, empty shock taking its place. "You…"

Ruby flips her hair. "You're a pretty girl Weiss, but gods you have the personality of a… a penguin with an ice cube for a head. And you aren't understanding why I don't want to go out with you anymore because you have your own stupid head stuck up so far in your ass, that, I, ugh! I'm having a stroke right now because of how stupid you are!"

Blake murmurs something over her shoulder. She doesn't catch it, throwing insult after insult after insult. It was going to feel so terrible. But it felt so amazing to finally be able to strike the match to their relationship.

"How about this." Ruby wickedly grins. "List ten things about me that you like about me. Then, I'll think about courting you."

Weiss sputters at the challenge. "Ten things about you? Oh this should be so easy!?"

Ruby puts her hands on her hips, taunting her alleged knight-at-arms. "I bet it won't. And don't lie to me! I'll know if you lie!"

"How so? Are you about to use a command on me, Ruby Rose?"

That gets Ruby to back off, at least partially. "N-no. Of course not, you're just not a very good liar!"

"Of course I am!"

"Weiss, have you ever heard yourself talk?"

"Please don't give anyone the idea to conjure a clone of Weiss just so she can hear herself talk." Blake groans. "As funny as that might be, I'm not even sure Weiss wants two of her in this gods-forsaken castle."

"Quiet you!" Weiss snarls, slamming her fist against the table. "Point one! I find your sense of aesthetic expression through the clothes and adornments you wear to be quite adequate."

"Wow Weiss." Ruby snorts. "You've really got the ladies wet with those words of yours."

Weiss grumbles, biting back what must be a string of curses meant for her. "I find… that you are quite on point with your sense of fashion and self-presentation. You're…" Blue contorts her face, as if she's about to run out of whatever flows up that vampire brain of hers, "very aesthetically pleasing."

It takes all of Ruby's willpower not to melt right then and there; her cheeks burning an obscene red. "Elaborate. If you name p-parts of my body you like, then I'll let you count those as points!"

Weiss's confidence returns as Ruby's drains. All the while, Blake passively observes the carnage between Summoner and Familiar.

"Your arms. They're very well toned, and are thusly an indication of how hard you've been working."

"I like your arms too." Ruby blurts out, filter having fallen off. "I… suppose I'll count that as two compliments. You're at three now Weiss."

"Your eyes." Weiss growls, misty gaze locked onto hers'. "They light up whenever you get excited, determined about something. It's very attractive."

"Your eyes are seriously cool as well." Ruby harrumphs, breaking away from Weiss's gaze. Unfortunately, she's roped back into Weiss's sphere when her familiar approaches her. Resting a cold touch against her the back of neck.

"Your nape." Weiss breathes, cold. "In Atlas, we had architects who had a fetish for marbled statues of court ladies in the nude." She leans in on her neck, a cold tongue swiping against her skin. Ruby's breath hitches. "You remind me of them."

"Gods, Weiss."

"Can you two just fuck already?" Blake says, grabbing her books. And another plate of fish to take with her to her room. "This is really hot and all, but nothing I haven't read before."

"My father would try to court me with noble boys from all around the realm, each male hand-picked to further his political ambitions." Weiss whispers, disgusted around the mention of men. "If it weren't for those statues, I'm certain I would have never learned to appreciate… forms like ours." Cold lips return to Ruby's neck; pulling down Ruby's top and sucking just above her breasts.

"You-ah, love my Ruboobies, don't you?"

Weiss rolls her eyes at the wordplay. "They're larger than mine."

Ruby nearly blusters into chortles, and Weiss's groping is all that can ground her back into erotic reality.

"Your jawline." Another kiss. "Your cheekbones." Another kiss, and this time, a mischievous smirk. "Your nose." A gentle lick, that draws a snort from Weiss's Queen.

"What about… my lips?" Ruby breathes.

"What about them?" Weiss grins, playing coy. "They're perfectly above average."

"I'll show you perfectly above average, you dolt." Ruby snarls.

She takes Weiss by the shoulders, smashing their personal space into the floor. Their eyes fixated on the other's lips. Ruby waits, inhibitions still keeping her from violently smashing her lips into the other's. Weiss can still back off; it's her game now.

Their first kiss slams into them like cement; Weiss tastes like blood, snow and herbs, with the slightest hint of salted herring. Gentle fangs lightly cut Ruby's; Weiss desperately laps up what little blood there is, and Ruby shudders.

"Gods…" Blake mutters. It was if Ruby could feel her arousal even while lost in Weiss. "We should… negotiate stuff later. For now, I'll be in my chambers. Masturbating." Fumbling with the door hinge, Blake quickly takes her leave, books and fish in tow.

Blake had left.

They could leave.

"I thought you were so pretty the first time I met you." Ruby groans, sucking on Weiss's neck.

"I know, you dolt." Weiss chokes, pushing Ruby away so she can lick her neck more. "Gods, I don't know why you make me feel this way."

"Stars Weiss, I thought you wanted to kiss me, not eat me." Ruby laughs, arms around Weiss. But her knight doesn't respond to the provocation; instead staring. Drunk finally, drunk in her eyes.

"I've waited so long for you to notice." Weiss sighs, sucking on Ruby's cheek.

"Actually, Blake told me you got off almost every night whispering my name." Ruby chuckles, holding Weiss close to her, imagining the look of mortification on her face. Somehow when Weiss breaks free, it's as though her familiar was okay with it. For now.

"Is this what court in Atlas supposed to be like?" Ruby laughs, as Weiss fumbles with her cloak.

"I think this is true of every court." Weiss hums, pulling down her collar even further, sucking on every bit of exposed flesh she can find. "Hormonal ladies of the aristocracy, meeting with rambunctious gentlemen from far off lands. Compared to before, my experience with you has been quite… tame." An unfanged tooth grazes against her bared teat.

"A-ah!" Ruby squeals, Weiss's cold fingers quick to cover her mouth.

"My room." Weiss whispers, hunger in her eyes. "Now."

oOoOo

Contrary to all expectations, their first time together was… a miserably clumsy affair, to be quite honest. Fun and tension alleviating, yes. But they'd been absolute idiots throughout the entire matter, with nothing to show for it by the end of it all besides some their sweat, and some giggly cuddles.

"You're so… warm." Ruby frowns, her bared body now terribly sweaty. Weiss was cold, but when they were together… maybe she should ask Blake if Ruby was just a natural source of heat, because there was no way a vampire could be this naturally warm.

Weiss, drowsy, fondles her naked chest. Ruby's breath hitches. "I'm pretty sure that's you." Drifting off into sleep. Even with Ruby's wandering arms reaching out, groping her bared behind.

"Wait, don't vampires usually sleep in coffins?" Ruby asks, eyes unwilling to stay awake for much longer.

"That's... wrong." Weiss scoffs, before sleep takes them both.

* * *

_5/31, Beacon Castle Gates_

_Burning Hibiscus_

Maybe it was the fact that it was some time past sunset, and whoever these jokes of a castle guard were were just dead tired from a lack of rest.

But they didn't seem _that _exhausted; given their shiny plate armour, the weapons they'd loved to wave around like phallic symbols at one of those ceremonies of the gods she'd never visited. It stood to reason that these lot weren't exactly the type to suffer all-day patrols out of necessity. More of the… break their own bones to avoid mule duty during the march sort of lot.

Maybe it was the fact that she'd shown up into town dressed in a pile of rags. Maybe she could have stood to acquire some more… respectable garb, but she couldn't really be damned. Her own dragon's blood was more than capable of keeping her warm, and she felt she looked hot enough even without the garb to go with it! And at least she'd shown the decency to weave together some clothes on her own, instead of showing up-

Okay, no. She had far more dignity than that, blasted be what her gods and 'friends' said of her.

"Sod off girly." The guard gets up all in her personal space. A charmingly handsome smile that just so had to be worn on the face of an asshole. And he was breathing on her. Reaching out for her hair.

"Her majesty might have herself a fucking circus of an entourage, but far be it from us lot that we'd let a peasant sop like you into the castle. Unless you wanted to show us where you come from..."

Oh, it was so on.

* * *

_5/31, Beacon Castle, Rose Court _

_Crimson Rose_

She hadn't even the time to process yesterday's happenings before another ugly crisis reared its head on the eve of the Garland Moon.

Today's free time had been a wash for the most part. Blake made herself busy with Goodwitch and Oobleck after class. And Weiss… Weiss hadn't even shown up to class. And everything still felt so fresh. So she'd spent the day exploring the now familiar walls of what was supposed to be her castle. The castle that felt like, keeping the poor girl confined in an admittedly comfortable prison.

Avoid the trapdoors near the tapestries, avoid the potholes… everywhere. It was routine by this point, which made the sudden earthquake all the more terrifying. Luckily, she had the sensibility to be caught while she was in the throne room, probably the safest of the rooms in the citadel.

"Stay there!" Goodwitch bursts in, checking in on Ruby's health in seconds flat. It's all the time she has, before the trembling of the castle foundation called her once more. "I'll send Blake for you. Send Weiss over for you as well!" She takes off, the sound barrier rips around her, with extremespeeds made possible only through the world of magic.

"Y-yes m'am!" She was hopelessly lost, and only mildly embarrassed that her own mentor was still ordering the Queen of Vale around. Stars guide her.

'_Weiss!' The channel, left unopened since… then, suddenly floods through._

_Panic. Questioning. Fear._

'_Ruby!'_

The rittle-rattle of chains from above announces Blake's presence, as her sole court member falls in behind her. "I've got you. I've got you."

Her eyes show a clear terror in her. Debating whether to stay or go. She wonders if any of Blake's scenarios involve them together.

"I…" Ruby grits her teeth, picking up a ceremonial sword. Brittle, long retired, but hopefully still with a use. "Same."

"Ruby!" A bat chimes in from the castle ventilation, her true form taking shape as she approaches, her body recreating itself. Weiss. Even now, she manages to land with a grace befitting her general demeanor. "I'm here!"

"Weiss…"

Mantillean glyphs and runes activate on Weiss's arm, as her rapier activates the enchantments engraved on the blade. It glows silver like the rest of her wardrobe, and Ruby's left to wonder if Weiss was looking for more diversity in her wardrobe. Contrasting against her noble lineage; her curse, her punishment. Weiss's wings violently burst forward from her back. Her jet blue eyes radiate with an energy her magic circuits can read and feel as life-draining.

"I can probably fight for two minutes before it starts to hurt Ruby." Weiss states darkly, Blake nodding. For such a dysfunctional inner circle, they seemed to do much better while at the receiving end of a blade's edge.

The steel doors squeak open; two guards stumble forward, unhurt yet struck with sheer terror. Deprived of any morale, any will to continue resisting. Though it would be appropriate to ask if they even possessed such a will in the first place.

"Your majesty! It's a… a…"

"A lone woman!" His companion screams, nearly lost in hysteria. "She just burst through the castle barricades like it was nothing!"

"We tried to stop her, but she just went straight through our ranks!"

Weiss's rapier is drawn. Energy, mana as cold as silver snow charges into the slender blade. At Weiss's command. "Stay behind me."

Tense knuckles grip the ceremonial blade. She can't, couldn't take that from her. "No promises."

Blake draws her blades; she can faintly hear the sound of a chain rattling somewhere. "Ruby-"

"Clod off! Cripes, how many more of you morons are there!? I'd have thought at least one of you morons would have been decent at your jobs but noooo!" A loud, thunderous voice rumbles. Each word punctuated approaches the throne room at a terribly rapid pace. Blake grabs Ruby, setting her firmly behind her ad hoc guard.

"Was in drei teufels namen…?" Weiss murmurs, nearly distracting Ruby with her accent.

"Oi! Hands off the hair brunette!"

Another tremor. This time, startlingly violent, nearly turning Ruby's legs into jelly alone. It rips through the brick and mortar foundation and castle walls, sending the massive chandelier swerving madly. Bricks, foundation, mortar falls from the ceiling above, threatening to crush their little position before their fight can even begin.

"This is turning into a death trap!" Weiss shouts. The air suddenly freezes solid above them; falling debris crashes against Weiss's ice cover, Ruby covering her head instinctively.

"Then let's not fall into it!" Blake says back.

And then.

The steel doorway separating the throne room from the castle main goes flying. Nearly decapitating the queen, the projectile smashes into the back end of the throne room, throwing brick debris everywhere. An unmistakable prickle against her skin turns into a blunt sear, then an open roast over a campfire.

The barricaded doorway separating the throne room from the castle main crashes down with enough force to send brick debris flying everywhere. The room heats up, unbearably so. The wicks of inactive candles light aflame, the armor pieces of Ruby Rose and her personal guard weigh unbearably hot and heavy.

Dust and heat scorches the throat; sight is rendered an impossibility. The urge to hack and cough nearly breaks through, and if it wasn't for the new ventilation freshly built into the walls, they'd all surely suffocate.

If the castle was described as dilapidated by most before, it was now certainly a wreck. The dust cloud slowly clears off.

It's almost like the throne room was too small for her. Her body was too small for her, even as her height clearly towered over most. Toned to the point where she'd turn the heads of even the most straightened of ladies. Long blonde hair sashays in the open breeze. Unkept, because it didn't need to be.

"Yang?" Ruby asks. She'd never heard the name spoken out loud, save for her dreams. And in her dreams-

The bruiser's eyes are fire. Burning. Burning seemingly almost unfit for her human form. "Ruby?"

"You know this brute!?" Weiss asks. Ruby certainly hadn't been expecting to get used to the sound of Weiss's stupefied voice. Ruby's second guard, Blake, lays a firm hand on Weiss's shoulder; for a second, she can see Weiss flustering, before understanding Blake's intent.

"She's…" Tears come to Ruby's eyes. They'd never met in the world physical before. But they were bounded by blood. "You're my sister? Aren't you?"

Her eyes burn so brightly in the frostbitten night. The harsh, biting cold retreats from the audience chambers, as if alive and terrified of the bruiser. "In the flesh." Her chest heaves, her breath expended, exhaustion trying to set in. Tufts of smoke and embers escape her throat with each breath.

"Yang. Pretty sure I'm part dragon, or something like that. Nice to meetcha." She flashes a toothy grin, breathy and worn. But most certainly, happy to be here. "I pretty much just woke up earlier this morning, and I have absolutely no clue what's up with your castle guard but they really suck at their jobs."

* * *

**So, how'd you all enjoy the fic? Do leave a review down below for my unhealthy need to be validated by others as a writer. Or don't. It's your life. :p**

**CONTENT WARNINGS**

**White Rose: Implied sex. Kissing, Emotional Tensions.**

**Ladybug: Implied sex. Groping, Kissing, negotiations.**

**Monochrome: Kissing, Emotional Tensions.**

**Other: Deadnaming.**

**Character Key**

**Ruby Rose: AMAB Trans Lady Lesbian.**

**Weiss Schnee: Cis Lesbian.**

**Blake Belladonna: AMAB Faunus Transfeminine Bisexual. (She/Her/Hers)**

**Yang Xiao Long: Cis Dragon Pansexual.**

**If y'all want me to write those lewd scenes fully, I'll publish them separately.**  
**Thanks to aiwass_crowley for reading my rough draft and giving their feedback. Very good feedback, in fact.**

**Q: why is ruby and blake trans**  
**A: why not**


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